The death toll from a major tornado that savaged Joplin, Missouri, has risen to 125 as tornadoes overnight in nearby states caused at least 13 more deaths.
Bulldozers pushed through rubble in Joplin and search teams pressed through a six-mile-long path of destruction looking for survivors and likely more victims, authorities said.
At least 823 were injured by the tornado that hit on Sunday at dinner time, and an estimated 1,500 remain missing.
Eight died in Oklahoma, while Arkansas officials confirmed three deaths, and two deaths were confirmed in Kansas from a line of several tornadoes that roared across the Midwest overnight.
As the storm system moved eastward, Arkansas, northern Mississippi, southern Illinois and Indiana were at the highest risk for devastating tornadoes today, according to AccuWeather.com.
The Joplin tornado was rated an EF-5, the highest possible on the Enhanced Fujita scale of tornado power and intensity, with winds of at least 328km/h.
EF-5 tornadoes are rare in the US, but already this year there have been at least four.
They are so destructive that experts said they can turn a house into a missile.
Authorities in Joplin established checkpoints and issued permits to allow homeowners to return to demolished home sites and try to recover valuables.
So far 823 people had been treated for storm-related injuries, both in areas hospitals and in a temporary medical centre set up in the town's concert hall that used equipment salvaged from the town's heavily-damaged main hospital.
