Stunned survivors picked through the little that was left of their communities after tornadoes tore across the United States, killing at least 22 people in three states.

At least 15 people died in south-western Missouri. In the fading mining town of Picher, Oklahoma, at least six people were killed, and at least one person died in storms in Georgia.

Susan Roberts, 61, stared at the smashed remains of her classic 1985 Cadillac sitting on her living room floor - the only thing left of her Seneca home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.

"That is what is tearing me up," Roberts said today. She had warned the woman - who stopped to change a tyre as Roberts and her 13-year-old grandson drove away from the rental house - to escape.

The tornado hit just minutes later.

The same storm system earlier hit Oklahoma, where at least six people died and 150 people were injured in Picher.

The town, once a bustling mining centre of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution there, was a surreal scene of overturned cars, smashed homes and mattresses, and twisted metal high stuck in the canopy of trees.

"I swear I could see cars floating," said Herman Hernandez, 68. "And there was a roar, louder and louder."

Ed Keheley was headed to town to help out last night when he heard a woman screaming. He looked over to see her hand reaching out of debris.

"She was sitting in the bathtub, she had curlers in her hair and she wanted out of there," said Keheley, who along with several others pulled her out.

One storm victim's child was initially reported dead, but state emergency management spokeswoman Michelann Ooten later said the infant was actually alive at a Tulsa hospital.

As the system moved east today, one of at least six tornadoes in Georgia killed a person in Dublin, about 200km south-east of Atlanta, the National Weather Service said.

The body was found in the rubble of a mobile home, said Bryan Rogers, the Laurens County administrator.
A second person found in the home, who state and local authorities initially reported had died, was hospitalised in critical condition, said Lisa Janak of the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the Missouri state Emergency Management Agency, said it was unclear how many homes had been damaged.

But she said officials in Newton County, which includes Seneca, had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.

Nearly 20 people were hospitalised in Newton County, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman for the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.

Storms later today in North Carolina destroyed several mobile homes, but there was no word on injuries, said Patty McQuillan of the state police.

In storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado caused significant damage in Stuttgart, but no one was seriously injured, said Weather Service meteorologist Joe Goudsward.

Tornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on February 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2.

In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged homes and has slowed farmers in their planting.