Powerful storms have roared through middle America, with weak tornadoes touching down in isolated spots and severe thunderstorms threatening several states.

VIOLENT storms that swept through the central US killed at least 14 people in three states.

Nine people were killed when violent thunderstorms ripped through three states overnight, US officials said today.

EMERGENCY crews drilled through concrete at a ruined Home Depot, making peepholes in the rubble in hopes of finding lost shoppers and employees.

The death toll for the Missouri tornado rose to 117 today, making it single deadliest twister in the United States for 60 years.

Rescue crews dug through piles of splintered houses and crushed cars in a search for victims of a half-mile-wide tornado that killed at least 116 people as it blasted a Missouri town off the map and tore through its hospital.

A MASSIVE tornado that tore a 10km path across south-western Missouri killed at least 89 people as it slammed into the city of Joplin, ripping into a hospital, crushing cars like tin cans and leaving a forest of splintered tree trunks behind where entire neighbourhoods once stood.

At least 89 people have been killed by a massive tornado that brought devastation to a city in the US state of Missouri.

A massive storm system has spawned tornados along a broad swathe of the US Midwest, with one city in Missouri hit with such force that dozens of cars were overturned and entire neighbourhoods razed to the ground, leaving only a forest of splintered tree trunks behind.