Ten people died in Newton County, Missouri, on the border with Oklahoma, according to Susie Stonner of the Missouri Emergency Management Agency, adding that police had not ruled out finding more victims.

Hardest hit was Racine, a tiny community in Newton County about 170 miles (270 km) south of Kansas City.

The path of destruction was a mile (1.6 km) wide in some places, said Jason Schaumann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Missouri.

"This looks like a very large tornado," he said. "We've got indications of cars that were thrown a quarter to a half mile, and frame homes that were swept off their foundations."

Damage indicated an EF3 tornado, which would have estimated wind speeds of 136 to 165 mph (219 to 266 kph), he said.

Hail the size of softballs and wind gusts of 80 mph (129 kph) were also reported in Missouri, where nearly 100 were injured, according to media reports.

Six people were killed in the small north-eastern Oklahoma town of Picher, officials said.

Local television footage from Picher showed homes ripped from their foundations, trees stripped of leaves and sheet metal twisted like paper.

"Basically a 24-block area is virtually destroyed," said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management, adding that 150 residents were treated for injuries ranging from broken bones and serious lacerations to minor scrapes.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry ordered National Guard troops to help with rescue and recovery and was due to survey damage to the area on Sunday afternoon.

Picher is at the centre of a massive federal clean-up of pollution from lead and zinc mining. Residents were being assisted with relocation from the community after high levels of lead were found in groundwater.

President George W. Bush offered prayers for families of those who died and said a day the country celebrates as Mother's Day was, for some, a sad occasion.

"The federal government will be moving hard to help. I'll be in touch with the governors and offer all the federal assistance we can," Bush said before boarding Air Force One at Waco, Texas.

ACTIVE SITUATION

Two people died in Georgia's Laurens county, just one of 19 counties in the state that reported storm damage, said Lisa Janak, spokeswoman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

"We still have pockets of severe weather moving through south Georgia so it's an active situation," Janak said, adding the storm had blocked the main road from Macon to Savannah.

"We are putting together damage assessment teams but we are being hampered by the damage and debris."

In Missouri, Howard Birdsong, the mayor of Neosho, a town of 11,500 that is the Newton County seat, said at least two of the deaths came when a tornado overturned a vehicle.

"There's an awful lot of property damage," Birdsong said by telephone. "From what I've seen many homes have been destroyed, some businesses, and some cars have been overturned, uprooted trees and power outages ... There are several dozen injured."

In Barry County, one person was killed in Purdy, where several trailer homes, a church and other residences were damaged, the National Weather Service said. A tree fell on a trailer home in Carthage, Jasper County, killing one person.