Storms kill at least 27 in Midwest, South
Trees downed, homes ripped from their foundations
DYERSBURG, Tennessee (CNN) -- Authorities in parts of the Midwest and South were assessing damage and counting the dead Monday from thunderstorms that killed at least 27 people.
Twenty-three people were killed from Sunday's storms in northwestern Tennessee, 15 of them in Dyer County and eight in neighboring Gibson County, officials in the Volunteer State said.
Three people died in Missouri and another person in Illinois, authorities said. (Watch for blown-out walls and peeled-back roofs -- 2:18)
Dyer County Sheriff Jeff Holt said his county saw "absolute total destruction of homes."
"There's nothing left but a foundation on some houses," he said, adding that large trees across roadways initially had slowed the deployment of emergency equipment.
The National Weather Service said it had preliminary reports of 63 tornadoes overnight, according to The Associated Press.
Coleman Foss, CEO of the Dyersburg Regional Medical Center, said his facility had treated 32 people injured in the storm. Nine were hospitalized, he said.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol sent troopers, equipment and dogs to the affected area to help in the search-and-rescue efforts, the agency said in a statement.
Tennessee Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman Leanne Durm told the AP that the worst reports of damage in the area were coming from Gibson County.
The town of Bradford reported 1,200 damaged structures, including the police station, while there were 300 damaged buildings in Rutherford and 150 in the town of Dyer, Durm told AP.
Newbern Alderman Robert Hart told WCMT radio that witnesses described the tornado that hit his town as being "almost a mile wide," the AP reported.
"It's amazing some folks even survived when you look at the destruction," Hart said, according to AP.
'I heard roaring'
The Tennessee Highway Patrol's chief, Col. Mike Walker, cautioned "people without legitimate business" to stay out of the area and "let law enforcement and other first responders do their work."
Newbern resident Betty Sisk told AP that she and her 13-year-old daughter and 10-year-old son tried to take cover during the storm but powerful winds threw them into the yard as their home was shredded.
"By the time the [tornado] sirens started going off, it was at our back door," Sisk told the AP. "I didn't hear a train sound, I heard a roaring."
She and the children took shelter in a closet until the twister blew their house apart and threw them into the yard, where they huddled until the storm passed, the AP said. Nothing remained of Sisk's wood-frame home Monday but the concrete steps, according to the AP.
A twister carved a path through a cluster of homes near the Jimmy Dean Foods plant north of Newbern, where several victims died, the AP reported. The plant, which makes breakfast sausages and other food products, also sustained some damage, a security guard told the AP.
Authorities released details of some of the deaths in Missouri and Illinois.
In Fairview Heights, Illinois, a man was killed when an apparent tornado flattened a clothing store, police said. Fairview Heights is near St. Louis, Missouri.
Straight-line winds -- not a twister -- toppled a mobile home in Essex, Missouri, killing a 42-year-old man, Stoddard County Sheriff Carl Hefner said.
Near Ballwin in St. Louis County, Missouri, a man was killed when a tree fell on him during a heavy storm, a county police spokesman said.
Official: Half of Arkansas town destroyed
About a half-dozen tornadoes struck Arkansas, and one destroyed nearly half of the town of Marmaduke, a fire department official told the AP.
"There are people unaccounted for, but we don't even know if they were out of town yet," the AP reported, quoting acting fire commander Chris Franks on Monday.
Officials limited access to the town in northeastern Arkansas because of a ruptured natural gas line, AP said.
"Almost every single structure in Marmaduke has minor to moderate damage, but almost 50 percent of it is totally destroyed," Franks told the AP. In 1997, a tornado also damaged much of the town, the AP reported.
Illinois
A long front of severe weather stretched "pretty much from north to south" in Illinois, although the most powerful cell appeared to follow an eastward path along Interstate 72, according to Illinois Emergency Management spokeswoman Patti Thompson.
The town of Taylorville in Christian County, Illinois, received significant damage to dozens of homes and businesses, according to Taylorville Emergency Management Director George Michael Crews. (Watch storage buildings shredded by the storm -- 1:30)
"We do not have any life safety concerns," Crews said, with minor injuries reported.
The National Weather Service also reported tornado touchdowns in the Illinois counties of Champaign, McLean, Macon, Piatt, Sangamon and Kankakee. Initial damage reports in those counties were limited to utility poles and trees down in addition to roof damage.
Indiana, Ohio
Severe thunderstorms also struck Indianapolis, Indiana, as thousands of fans departed a free John Mellencamp concert that was part of the NCAA's Final Four weekend, the AP reported. (Watch Hoosiers fans scramble for shelter -- 3:11)
In Ohio, the storms ripped off the roof and chimney from a home in Warren County northeast of Cincinnati, the AP reported. Downed trees and power lines were widespread.
Yesterday's tornadoes are merely a small part of the Midwest's current run of bad weather.
High winds and multiple tornadoes caused destruction across the American Midwest yesterday, killing 18 people when they hit five states in the early evening, although that figure is expected to rise.

In Dyer County, Tennessee alone, 12 people were killed, and in Gibson County, Tennessee, a further three were lost, bringing the death toll up to 15 in that state alone. The remaining three lives were lost in Missouri as a result of high winds, although the freak weather also hit the states of Arkansas, Kentucky, Ohio and Illinois.
Dyer, Tennessee following the tornado which struck the area April 3. At least eight were killed in Gibson County.
When asked about the storms which caused chaos in Tennessee, Dyer County Sherriff Jeffrey Holt said, "This hit about 7:40 last night, so the warnings were out. They were being tracked all the way across Arkansas and Missouri as it was coming in. We had plenty of warnings, I think, just the amount of destruction in the area is what caused our fatality count to get so high. Destruction is almost absolute total destruction along some of the path of this. There's just nothing left of houses but foundation."

Numerous power failures were reported across the affected areas, with some county authorities reporting that the blackouts may go on for several days.

The flag of Tennessee, the state with the highest death toll following yesterday's twisters.

A dispatcher in Pemiscot County, Missouri informed the press that, as of Monday morning, some people were still trapped in their houses as a result of the storms.

In Illinois, tornadoes touched down across at least seven counties according to local emergency officials, but no-one was severely injured or killed. The Emergency Management spokesperson for Illinois Patti Thompson reported that a large storm front which spanned the breadth of America from Illinois southwards was the cause of last night's dramatic weather.

In the state of Ohio, a Wilmington-based meteorologist informed members of the Associated Press that "In every county in southwest Ohio there has been some type of damage."

Repair costs for damage across the affected area are expected to be six-figure sums, and extensive work to replace destroyed segments of the infrastructure such as gas and power supplies is already underway, said officials in all seven of the states hit this morning. The current death toll is expected to rise today, with at least one more unconfirmed death reported in Missouri already.