Search on for US storm survivors

New York : Emergency crews searched through wreckage on Sunday from violent storms that left a path of destruction from the Midwest to the South and killed at least 23 people in Missouri, Oklahoma and Georgia.

In Missouri, tornadoes tore through small towns in the southwestern section of the state just after 6.30pm Saturday near the border with Oklahoma, overturning cars and smashing buildings.

The superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, James F. Keathley, said the tornadoes killed at least 14 people and injured hundreds. A family was killed when its vehicle was hit by a tornado, Keathley said.

Captain Tim Hull of the Missouri Highway Patrol said 12 of the confirmed deaths occurred in Newton County. "It's a rural area," he said. "There are some small towns that were hit hard."

The storm inflicted the most damage in Racine, a small town about 170 miles south of Kansas City.

Without power

Governor Matt Blunt of Missouri said in an interview on CNN on Sunday afternoon that about 9,000 state residents were without power and could remain so for three to five days as crews worked to repair the electrical grid. He said emergency crews were "ensuring that we have found any potential survivors or anyone unaccounted for".

The governor said at least 85 people had been injured by the storm. "Some of those injuries are fairly severe," he said.

In a statement issued as he departed his ranch in Crawford, Texas, on Sunday, President George W. Bush said the federal government would offer assistance to the states hit by the tornadoes. "We send our prayers to those who lost their lives, the families of those who lost their lives," he said.

"And the federal government will be moving hard to help."

"This obviously was a big storm," Governor Brad Henry of Oklahoma said in an interview on CNN on Sunday afternoon. "Looks like it had a swath about half a mile wide."

The storm system moved into southwest Missouri and into Georgia, where at least two other people were killed in the town of Dublin, about 120 miles south of Atlanta, according to weather officials.

Florida Wildfires: Main roads cut off

Wildfires in central Florida on Sunday shut down Interstate 95 and other major roads, forced the evacuation of hundreds of coastal residents, and kept firefighters, deputies, relief workers and state troopers on alert throughout the night.

More of the same was expected yesterday as high winds, dry conditions and record-high temperatures fuel the blazes in Volusia and Brevard counties.

Winds of up to 40mph stoked the fires that burned nearly 3,000 acres in the two counties, forcing authorities to evacuate at least 400 homes in Cocoa, Palm Bay and Daytona Beach, where residents had little time to pack up important belongings and flee.