Rescue team searches wreckage in US town destroyed by tornado

Rescue crew searched for anyone still buried in the heaps of splintered wreckage left after a massive tornado destroyed most of this Kansas town.

At least 10 people were known dead from weekend storms - eight in the Greensburg area and two others elsewhere in Kansas - one Friday night and another in violent weather late Saturday, state officials said.

Amid the destruction, rescue workers and officials held out hope that death toll wouldn't rise and that they can rebuild their town, from replacing the destroyed churches down to the town's fire engines.

"At this point, it's still a search and rescue mission," Kansas state trooper Ronald Knoefel said. "We don't want to give up hope."

Search teams used trained dogs to sniff for bodies and used their hands and heavy equipment to clear away the rubble, but officials did not know how many people might still be missing.

"A lot of people have gone to other places and it's difficult to track them down," said Maj. Gen. Tod Bunting, the state's adjutant general.

National Guard engineers were assigned to help with the search. "Some of the rubble is just so deep," Bunting said. "That's really what our problem is."

The National Weather Service classified the Friday night tornado as an F-5, the highest category on its scale. The weather service said it had wind estimated at 205 mph (330 kilometer), and carved a track 1.7 miles (2.7 kilometers) wide and 22 miles (35.4 kilometers) long. The last tornado that strong killed 36 people in Oklahoma City on May 3, 1999.

Tree trunks stood bare in Greensburg, stripped of most of their branches. All the churches were destroyed. Every business on main street was demolished. The town's fire engines were crushed. The massive concrete silos of a grain elevator towered over the flattened expanse of what was left of the town.

Greensburg Administrator Steve Hewitt, who lost his home, estimated 95 percent of the town of 1,500 was destroyed.

Greensburg remained off limits to residents Sunday, but officials said they would be allowed to return Monday morning to recover what they could. Residents were to be bused in and would have to leave by 6 p.m.

On Sunday, the weather service posted tornado warnings during the afternoon for parts of Kansas and Oklahoma and severe thunderstorm warnings were extended across parts of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency was bringing in travel trailers to house some of the town's residents, said FEMA regional administrator Dick Hainje. There was no indication when people would be able to move in to the trailers because the area was choked with debris and the town had no clean water.

President George W. Bush declared parts of Kansas a disaster area, freeing up federal money to aid in recovery.

"There's a certain spirit in the Midwest of our country, a pioneer spirit that still exists, and I'm confident this community will be rebuilt," Bush said.

Some residents were less optimistic.

"If I hear that people are going stay and we're going to have a school, then I'll stay," said Greensburg High School shop teacher Peter Kern, who had lived in the town for the last year. "If we don't have a school, I don't have a job."

School superintendent Darin Headrick said classes will be canceled for the rest of the academic year, with graduation being held elsewhere. When school resumes in August, the district, which has about 300 students, will hold classes in other communities.

The Greensburg twister late Friday was part of a storm front that also spawned tornadoes in parts of Illinois, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Nebraska, though most damage elsewhere was minimal, officials said.

A second round of storms massed over the Plains on Saturday, firing off tornadoes from Oklahoma to South Dakota, which had at least 20 twisters, the weather service said.

Most of Saturday's tornadoes caused only scattered damage to farm outbuildings, but at least eight homes were destroyed and one person was injured in western Oklahoma, the state emergency management department said. Sweetwater was hardest hit, with three homes destroyed, the roof torn off the local school and other buildings damaged.