Devastating US tornadoes leave a trail of death and destruction

A TOWN lies in ruins with several people dead after tornadoes, strong enough to buckle massive wind turbines, tore across three US states.

- Mark Reynolds

One obliterated homes, crumpled cars, splintered trees and damaged the hospital in Greenfield, Iowa.

The death toll is still unknown in the town of 2,000 residents but Iowa State Patrol Sgt Alex Dinkla said: "Sadly, we can confirm that there have been fatalities. We're still counting at this time."

Yesterday Sgt Dinkla said he thought that authorities had accounted for all of the community but that searches would continue if anyone was reported missing.

After tearing through Greenfield, storms moved eastward to pummel parts of Illinois and Wisconsin, knocking out power to more than 130,000 people in the two states on Tuesday.