More Deaths in the Oklahoma / Missouri TORNADO as Search dogs sniff for the dead and living

PICHER, Oklahoma (AP) - Crews and search dogs hunted Sunday for survivors or bodies in the piles of debris left after a tornado rumbled through the depressed mining town of Picher, Oklahoma, a day earlier and killed at least seven people. The same storm system left at least 15 other people dead in Missouri
and Georgia. Officials held out hope that they would not find any more bodies in Picher, once a bustling mining center of 20,000 that dwindled to about 800 people as families fled lead pollution here.
Residents said the tornado created a surreal scene as it moved through Picher late Saturday afternoon, injuring 150 people, overturning cars, throwing mattresses and twisted metal high into the canopy of trees.
«I swear I could see cars floating,» said Herman Hernandez, 68. «And there was a roar, louder and louder.
The same storm system then moved into southwest Missouri, where tornadoes killed at least 14 others. The storms moved eastward; On Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least one person.
In Seneca, Missouri, about 20 miles (32 kilometers) southeast of Picher near the Oklahoma border, crews on Sunday combed farm fields looking for bodies and survivors, the state emergency management spokeswoman said.
«We are finding more unfortunately,» Susie Stonner said, refering to the bodies.
Jane Lant was sorting through the debris of her bridal shop about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Seneca. A body wrapped in blue tarp lay next to the shop. Her husband's feed store and a home across the road were also destroyed.
Lant said they were thankful that the store had closed an hour before the twister hit.
«We would have had people in here at 6 when it hit,» she said.
In Picher, some homes were reduced to their foundations, others lost several walls. In one home, the tornado knocked down a bedroom wall, but left clothes hanging neatly in a closet. A Best Western hotel sign was blown miles (kilometers) before coming to rest against a post.
The towering piles of mining waste, or chat, had debris from the flattened homes scattered onto them by the storms. Cars were overturned and dogs roamed freely.
Frank Geasland, Ottawa County's emergency manager said, a government-sponsored buyout of homes in the town left some residences vacant, and this may have prevented a greater loss of life.
The tornador was the deadliest in Oklahoma since a May 3, 1999 twister that killed 44 people in the Oklahoma City area.
The National Weather Service estimated that at least eight tornadoes had been spawned in Oklahoma along six storm tracks. Three teams were dispatched to assess damage, meteorologist Steve Amburn said.
On Sunday, storms rumbled across Georgia, killing at least one person in Dublin, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether the storms produced any tornadoes.
Georgia Power officials say at least 80,000 residents are without electricity across the state, mostly concentrated in the metro Atlanta area and the Macon area.

At least 14 people were killed after severe storms spawned tornadoes and high winds across sections of southwestern Missouri, state emergency management officials said.
Ten of the dead were killed when a tornado struck near Seneca.
Television footage showed some destroyed outbuildings and damaged homes west of McAlester and near Haywood. At a glass plant southwest of McAlester, the storm apparently picked up a trailer and slammed it on top of garbage bins.
In storm-weary Arkansas, a tornado collapsed a home and a business, and there were reports of a few people trapped in buildings, said Weather Service meteorologist John Robinson.
Tornadoes killed 13 people in Arkansas on Feb. 5, and another seven were killed in an outbreak May 2. In between was freezing weather, persistent rain and river flooding that damaged residences and has slowed farmers in their planting.

Oklahoma Governor Brad Henry visits the area around Picher, Oklahoma, today after tornadoes raked the area, killing seven people there and at least 12 more in neighboring Missouri.

Several people are missing and dozens of people are reported hurt, some seriously. An Oklahoma Highway Patrol lieutenant says some homes were leveled down to the foundation. A county emergency official says it looks like a bomb went off.

Saturday's tornado tore up a 20-block swath of the depressed mining town. It had already been designated a federal superfund site due to lead pollution, and over the years, many townspeople have taken federal buyouts and pulled up stakes. Across the border in southwestern Missouri, at least 12 people were killed in severe storms that spawned tornadoes and high winds. Ten of the those died in a tornado that touched down near Seneca, about 20 miles from Picher.