Tornado obliterates Kansas farming town

By Carey Gillam

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - A tornado wiped out most of a small farming town in southwestern Kansas, killing nine people and injuring at least 63, emergency officials said on Saturday.

The funnel cloud hit Greensburg Friday evening, smashing buildings, overturning vehicles and knocking out communications towers. Aerial television news footage showed ruins throughout the community of about 1,800 people.

Rescue workers were going door to door, aided by National Guard troops. Some residents said on television that emergency sirens had given them about 20 minutes of warning before the punishing winds slammed into the town.

"There is the possibility of others being found," said Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management agency, about the number of people killed. "It's a significant disaster in terms of an entire town being nearly wiped out. It is certainly a tremendous amount of damage and rubble."

She had no estimate on how much property damage the storm caused.

The tornado was "massive", measuring up to 1 mile (1.6 km) wide, said Michael Lacy, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Dodge City, Kansas.

Winds were as strong as 165 mph (266 kph), he said.

In Washington, White House spokesman David Almacy said "the President's thoughts and prayers are with the people of Greensburg and all those who have suffered loss and injury."