Dozens of tornadoes whipped Missouri, Kansas, Tennessee and Arkansas states Sunday, destroying homes and buildings, and tearing up trees, power lines and anything else in their paths.

Authorities reported 14 dead in Tennessee, 18 in Missouri and seven in Kansas, as search and rescue teams combed through the debris left by the deadly twisters.

President George W. Bush, speaking in Little Rock, Arkansas, promised speedy assistance where needed. "Nature is awfully tough at times," he said in a speech.

Pierce City, a town of just 1,382 in southwestern Missouri -- one of the areas that bore the brunt of what meteorologists called a "perfect storm" -- was almost entirely leveled, according to witnesses.

Linda Hinds was lying on her bed when the twister swept through town, burying her alive in the rubble of her home.

"I heard the worst noise by my bedroom window and I tried to get up but something knocked me back down, and after that I couldn't move."

Rescue workers heard her cries and came to her aid, digging through parts of two walls and a downed tree to reach her. The 55-year-old walked away with just a bump on her head.

"I'm lucky to be alive," she said as she combed through the remains of her home in hopes of recovering a few meagre possessions late Monday. "There's nothing left of my home. It's demolished."

On Pierce's quaint main street, only a quarter of the turn-of-the-century buildings were left standing, according to witnesses.

"It looks like a bomb hit. On some corners you can't even get your bearings any more because most of the buildings are pretty well gone," said Sharon Clark, the town's postmaster.

Store-owners tried to salvage what they could -- a cash register here, supplies of liquor there, and postal workers managed to deliver 80 percent of the mail Monday, "even though some people didn't have a home, much less a mailbox," Clark said.

In Liberty, Missouri, 11 miles northeast of Kansas City, professors at William Jewell College cancelled final exams scheduled for later this week because of storm damage.

Winds knocked down the college's clock tower and caused serious roof damage.

"This is the worst damage I've seen from a tornado in several years," said Missouri Governor Bob Holden after touring one blighted neighbourhood in Kansas City.

Missouri declared a state of emergency for 17 counties, called up the National Guard to help out with the clean-up and dispatched canine search and rescue teams and hazardous material teams to some of the worst-hit sites.

In Madison County, Tennessee, search and rescue teams used chainsaws to clear downed trees and power poles from the roads as they fanned out across the state in the hunt for survivors.

"It took two or three hours to get some places," said Kelly Holmes, Madison County fire chief.

The body of one woman was recovered from a lake where much of the debris from her mobile home ended up, but efforts to find two other possible victims, including a child, were thwarted.

Rescuers' efforts to drag the lake were hampered by the sheer volume of material dumped there by the twisters. "There's so much debris, I don't know how we're going to make out," said Holmes.

At least five tornadoes swept through Kansas state Sunday, according to Emergency Management Agency officials.

In one Kansas city suburb, Dale Wilch watched from his driveway as a tornado dropped out of the clouds and touch down across the street.

"I saw it coming, jumped up and went down to the basement," Wilch said.

"As soon as I saw the tornado 100 feet (30 metres) from my house, I knew there was nothing we could do to save what we had."

As Wilch headed inside, the tornado turned sharply north, cutting through another neighborhood. Wilch's house escaped with minor damage.

Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius declared seven counties disaster areas, and authorities briefly stopped all flights and evacuated terminals at Kansas City International Airport Sunday.

Meteorologists warned that bad weather predicted for Monday and Tuesday would hamper recovery efforts.

The mayhem began when cold dry air from the Rocky Mountains in the western United States and moist warm air from the Gulf of Mexico collided in the the centre of the country.

"It was a pretty perfect setup for severe weather," said Kelli Tarp of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's storm prediction center in Norman, Oklahoma.

SPACE.WIRE