A fresh wave of tornadoes ripped through the central US a day after a tornado all but destroyed this town. At least nine people in the area were killed and dozens more injured.
The Kansas Adjutant General's Department said it had confirmed reports of eight tornadoes touching down, including one that injured 11 people when it struck a pair of restaurants in the central Kansas town of Osborne.
Vienna Janis, spokeswoman for Osborne County Emergency Management, said the twister hit around 6pm, ripping the roof off the Circle N restaurant and smashing windows in a Pizza Hut.
"It touched down and would then go back up and then touch down and go back up," Janis said.
The National Weather Service said it had received reports "well into the double digits" of twisters touching down in six southwest Kansas counties on Saturday evening. Numerous tornadoes were reported from South Dakota south into Oklahoma as forecasters scrambled to keep issuing warnings.
The new storms forced rescuers to abandon search efforts Saturday in southwest Kansas, where crews had spent the day hurrying through the wreckage from Friday night's giant tornado. That twister left little standing in Greensburg beyond the local pub.
Friday's weather was blamed for nine deaths in the region, a figure authorities feared could rise even before the latest twisters.
City Administrator Steve Hewitt estimated 95 percent of the town of 1,500 was destroyed and predicted rescue efforts could take days as survivors could be trapped in basements and under rubble.
Among the only structures that survived was the Bar H Tavern, the town's lone bar. It was briefly converted into a morgue.
Survivors picked over the remnants of their homes and possessions, still dazed by the twister's strength and scope. The town was a nightmare of splintered homes and smashed vehicles, the air redolent with the smell of sap from trees stripped of bark.
"We want everybody to know, and I plead to the American people as well as the people here in Kansas, this is a huge catastrophe that has happened to our small town," Hewitt said. "All my downtown is gone. My home is gone. My staff's homes are gone. And we've got to find a way to get this to work and come to work every day and get this thing back on its feet. It's going to be tough."
Among the funnel clouds on Saturday were a series of 1km wide "wedge" tornadoes -- similar to the one that devastated Greensburg on Friday night, meteorologist Mike Umscheid said.
"It looks like it's going to be another long night," he said.
A twister hit a high school in Sweetwater, Oklahoma, late on Saturday, and storm spotters reported damage to nearby residences in the far western Oklahoma town.
There were injuries, though the number and severity were not clear because communications had been knocked out, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol said. Several tornadoes were reported in that area and several other parts of the state.
Weather Service meteorologist Larry Ruthi said the path of damage in Greensburg was 2.3km wide, estimating it would be classified a "upper F-4 or an F-5" tornado, the strongest possible.
Jose Peraza said he was driving his oil rig into town when he heard the siren and driving hail started pounding the area. He pulled over and hid with several other people in a convenience store freezer.
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