Deadly tornadoes rip through American midwest – in pictures

Lance Whitmer walks though the damaged Burger Shack on the Strip in Branson, Missouri. Photograph: SARAH CONARD/REUTERS

The cab of a truck is submerged in the middle of a pond after being deposited there by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois. Photograph: Tom Gannam/REUTERS

Power lines lie on the ground in Branson, Missouri. A powerful storm system lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to a small town in Kansas. Photograph: Valerie Mosley/AP

Gene Byrd pauses for a moment while he and his son Devyn Byrd, 14, look over some of the damage sustained to a friend's house after a severe storm hit in the early morning hours on Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012, in Harrisrbug, Illinois. Photograph: Paul Newton/AP

Residents start to clean up after a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois. Powerful storms ripped through the Midwest, obliterating homes, churches and businesses across six states, authorities said. Photograph: Tom Gannam/REUTERS

Carissa Westfall helps salvage products from Nature's Sunshine Health Foods store in Branson, Missouri. Photograph: SARAH CONARD/REUTERS

Several deaths have been reported in Harrisburg and left the city's medical center scrambling to treat an influx of injured, the hospital's top administrator said. Photograph: Stephen Lance Dennee/AP

A tornado-damaged home sits amid debris along Main Street in Harveyville, Kansas. The small eastern town took a direct hit from an apparent tornado late Tuesday, injuring at least 11 people and reducing much of the town to ruins. Photograph: John Hanna/AP

Windows are blown out of a Hilton hotel in downtown Branson. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Margaret Shimkus, 61, talks with an emergency responder about her condition at her home in Harrisburg, Illinois, after an early morning tornado ripped through the town. Shimkus, who took refuge in her bathtub, sustained a minor cut from the early morning storm, but Dorothy Hill, her neighbor in the duplex home, was taken to a hospital with injuries. Photograph: Stephen Lance Dennee/AP

Broken branches and household debris are scattered across a lawn in Harveyville. Kansas governor Sam Brownback declared a state of emergency late Tuesday after a powerful storm system pounded the state's midsection. Photograph: Mathew Fowler/AP

Residents walk through a storm-damaged neighborhood just east of downtown Branson, Missouri. The powerful storm system lashed the Midwest, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to a small town in Kansas. Photograph: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Debris from a storm-damaged motel is blown across the parking lot in Branson, Missouri. Photograph: Dean Curtis/AP