Disaster areas declared as US
battered by dozens of tornadoes

Among the dead were an elderly man and his sister killed when a tornado hit their home in Illinois, said coroner Mark Styninger.

Buildings were destroyed and vehicles overturned in the states of Indiana and Kentucky.

It was feared that several hundred people may have been injured in the fast-moving storms, with a number of people feared trapped inside buildings.

People in 10 states had been at risk, said weather experts. Hailstones the size of tennis balls were reported.

The storm carried winds of up to 111km/h (68mph) and was last night continuing its way east.

November is ordinarily one of the quietest months in the tornado calendar, meaning such storms are not usually so destructive

The Illinois Emergency Management Agency confirmed four other deaths but did not provide details.

State governor Pat Quinn declared that seven counties were officially disaster areas.

With communications difficult and many roads impassable, it remained unclear what the final death and destruction figures are.

Between 250 and 500 homes were either damaged or destroyed in the town of Washington when the storms hit on Sunday.

Mayor Gary Manier said: “Everybody’s without power, but some people are without everything. How people survived is beyond me.”

The tornado cut a path from one side of town of 16,000 people to the other, knocking down power lines uprooting trees and rupturing gas pipes.

One local said he walked through the area immediately after the tornado struck and “couldn’t even tell what street I was on”.

“Just completely flattened – some of the neighbourhoods here in town, hundreds of homes.”

Michael Perdun, speaking by phone, said: “The whole neighbourhood’s gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house.”

Just how many tornadoes hit was unclear.

According to the National Weather Service’s website, 65 tornadoes struck, most of them in Illinois, but meteorologist Matt Friedlein said the total might fall because emergency workers, tornado spotters and others often report the same tornado.

Mr Friedlin said such strong storms are rare this late in the year because there usually is not enough heat from the sun to sustain the thunderstorms.

But he said temperatures on Sunday were warm enough to help produce severe weather when it is coupled with winds which are typically stronger 
this time of year than in the summer.

At Saint Francis Medical Centre in Peoria, spokeswoman Amy Paul said 37 patients had been treated, eight with injuries ranging from broken bones to head injuries that were serious enough to be admitted.

Another hospital, Methodist Medical Centre in Peoria, treated more than a dozen people, but officials there said none were seriously injured.

As the rain and high winds slammed into the Chicago area, officials halted an American football game between Chicago Bears and Baltimore Ravens and evacuated the stadium for two hours.

The storm system was later pushing into the mid-Atlantic and north-eastern states.

The National Weather Service said about 80 reports of tornadoes had come in by late on Sunday, although many were reported several times.

All the fatalities were reported in Illinois, which was the hardest-hit state.

Three people died in southern Massac County, and one person died in the town of Washington, the Illinois Emergency Management Agency was quoted as saying. The elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado struck their farmhouse in the rural southern Illinois village of New Minden.