Holly Lammert had been working on a papier-mâché sculpture in the backyard of her St. Louis home when tornado sirens rang out. Before she could get her 10-year-old daughter into the basement, the winds began.

On Saturday morning, she surveyed the damage in her community from one of several tornadoes that tore across the nation since late Friday, killing at least 23 people. Pieces of her neighbor’s roof were in her backyard. There were dozens of jagged tree limbs and trunks in her community garden. And at a nearby church, the bell tower had crumbled into dusty piles of bricks and stones.

“This poor neighborhood,” Ms. Lammert said. “I don’t know how we will come back.”

And that was only a fraction of the destruction left after tornadoes ripped through homes and killed people in at least three states: Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia. Officials warned the death toll could rise as they assessed the damage on Saturday, and dozens more were injured.

The spring tornado season has been especially brutal in this part of the country, coming just weeks after similar storms caused deadly devastation in the region. On Friday, these tornadoes were caused by a major storm over the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic.

In Kentucky, at least 14 people were killed, Gov. Andy Beshear said on Saturday morning. The governor is expected to tour the damage in Laurel County, about 90 miles south of Lexington, later on Saturday. The sheriff’s department there sent staff to the Faith Assembly Church in London, Ky., to help people trying to locate a loved one.

“All of our resources are now focused on rescue efforts,” he said in a post on social media. “Please pray for the families affected.”