Mississippi authorities are searching for a 9-year-old girl who they believe was swept up in a flash flood on Sunday night.

Heavy rain battered the Southeast region of the United States over the weekend, causing floods in some parts of Mississippi into Monday morning. Alabama, Georgia and Florida were also faced with potential flash floods at the beginning of the week, CNN reported.

Yazoo County Emergency Management Director Joey Ward said the girl, whose identity has not yet been released, was swept into the flood while playing in her backyard. She was reported missing at about 8 p.m. on Sunday, when Yazoo County fire and police crews received a call about her disappearance.

Officials told WJTV that a witness reported seeing a body behind the girl's house located at Lee Avenue and 8th Street.

The girl's mother said she saw her 9-year-old daughter pulled into a culvert under a road in Yazoo City, where four to five inches of rain suddenly pummeled the area in a short time frame, Ward told CNN.

Diving crews searched drainage ditches on Martin Luther King Drive, Lee Avenue, 7th and 8th Streets nearby, but could not immediately locate the girl.

Volunteers from both Yazoo City and County extended their search of the local drainage ditches into Monday afternoon.

Ward told WJTV said the bad weather was making it difficult to find the girl, and even worse conditions could further snarl the search.

"The rescue phase is now over, we will head into recovery phase in the morning," Ward said.

The girl was last seen wearing red sneakers and a pink dress.

Flash flood warnings for most of Georgia and Alabama, the northwestern Florida panhandle and southeastern Mississippi are in effect for Monday.

Meteorologists told CNN that a tornado hit Covington County, Miss., at about 2 a.m. on Monday.

Mississippi Emergency Management Agency officials said seven people were hurt by the storm, and a handful of houses in the immediate area sustained damages.