SENECA, Mo. – Stunned tornado survivors picked through the little that was left of their towns Sunday after storms tore across the Plains and South, killing at least 22 people in three states and leaving behind a trail of destruction and stories of loss.

AP

Bobby Turley helped pack up a co-worker's belongings Sunday after the worker's home was destroyed by a storm in Racine, Mo.

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

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 home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.

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

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

The town, once a bustling mining center 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 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."

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 on Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least one person in Dublin, about 120 miles southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether there was a tornado.

President Bush has talked with governors to express his condolences and to discuss needs, according to the White House.