CHICAGO, March 3: Residents and rescue workers went house to house on Saturday in a desperate search for survivors after tornados ripped open the US heartland, killing at least 31 people and wiping out entire communities. Even as stunned Americans grappled with the magnitude of the massive swath of destruction brought by Friday’s twisters, the National Weather Service (NWS) issued new tornado warnings  for parts of Georgia and Florida, in the country’s southeast.

Trucks and trees were tossed aside like playthings as deadly funnel clouds ravaged parts of six states in the US Midwest and South.

The images were surreal: a school bus smashed through the wall of a house, trucks thrown into lakes, solid brick homes reduced to rubble and wooden ones smashed into kindling, mobile homes flipped like tin cans.

At least 14 people were killed in Indiana, according to Governor Mitch Daniels, who stood amid the devastation in the town of Henryville early on Saturday.

“We’re not unfamiliar with Mother Nature’s wrath out here in Indiana, but this is about as serious as I’ve seen it in my years in this job,” an emotional Daniels told reporters.

“Lucky it wasn’t worse,” he said, adding that while early warning systems likely saved lives, it was a “heartbreaking” loss for families, and Indianans would come together to help neighbours cope.

Meanwhile in Kentucky, the department of public health confirmed 14 fatalities there, with a total of 13 tornados roaring across the state.

“It’s been a very difficult 24 hours in Kentucky,” Kerri Richardson, the governor’s communications director, said.

There were three deaths in the neighboring state of Ohio, an Emergency Management Agency official said.

A second round of searches for survivors began at daybreak in the southwest of the state, where communities reported widespread devastation, the official said.—AFP