DEATH IN TORNADO ALLEY; 45 are killed as twisters leave devastation in their wake.

AT LEAST 45 people have been killed by a series of tornadoes which carved a path of destruction through America's mid west.

Another 700 were injured and 20,000 left homeless as the twisters wrecked towns and villages early yesterday, throwing cars, lorries and caravans into the air like toys.

The biggest tornado, up to a mile wide and 10 miles high, hit speeds of 260mph. Police fear the death toll could top 100.

Oklahoma City mayor Kirk Humphrey said: "It looks like an atom bomb has gone off."

And Governor Frank Keating, declaring a state of emergency, said: "We have whole communities that simply aren't there any more."

At least 40 died in Oklahoma, while 150 miles north, another twister tossed mobile homes like tin cans, damaged houses and killed at least five people in Wichita, Kansas, and its suburb of Haysville.

As daylight broke in the region of America dubbed Tornado Alley, stunned survivors began to count the cost of the damage.

Rows and rows of houses destroyed. Cars were hurled about and crushed. Natural gas spewed from ruptured lines, power poles were reduced to kindling and broken, twisted wires fluttered in the breeze.

Mothers and children stood sobbing in rooms that once echoed with the sounds of family life - but now had no walls. Residents said the wind sounded like "an angry lion out in the wild".

Several mobile homes in South Wichita were blown into a lake during the five-hour storm. Chad Harris was with seven people inside his trailer home in Haysville when it was flipped over and demolished. Two of his companions were critically injured.

He said: "I have no trailer. We all rolled in it. It was the worst experience in my life."

In Oklahoma, the dead included 11 people in Bridge Creek, 30 miles south west of Oklahoma City. Others died in Oklahoma City, Midwest City, Moore, Del City and Norman.

Sergeant Jody Suit, of Del City, said: "I got lost in a neighbourhood I've driven around for 10 years because there's no landmarks any more. Out of one square mile, I'd say about one fourth of it is gone."

He estimated 750 houses were heavily damaged or destroyed in the city.

Yesterday, Mary Pat Faris, who weathered the storm in her bath, was waiting for word about missing family members.

She said: "I heard the popping and then I heard the trees crunching and then

my house was gone."

Katherine Burch, 74, who hid in the bathroom of her Oklahoma City home during the storm, said: "The house started shaking and then the big rumble. Glass and everything flew in it."

Ruth Seymore, who hid in a cupboard, said: "Everything fell in on me. They couldn't hardly get me out of there. I couldn't get anybody to find me. I kept hollering 'Help'."

Police and emergency workers combed through the debris as darkness fell, searching for survivors, while tornado warnings remained in effect. Crumpled cars littered two highways and hospitals reported treating almost 700 people for tornado-related injuries.

Sharla Findley, director of community relations at Hillcrest Health Centre in Oklahoma City, said: "It's real chaotic. We've gotten so many patients in I don't know who we have here."

Nearly 100 of the injured were in neighbouring Kansas, where five deaths have been confirmed. The figure was initially thought to be higher - some bodies had been counted twice.

Bob Thompson, of the Sedgwick County Fire Department, said: "We'll probably find more deaths. I don't think we've seen the end of it."

Yesterday, with warnings of more tornadoes to come, the National Severe Storms Lab in Norman confirmed the main twister may have been a mile wide at times. Weather service forecaster David Andra predicted it would be categorised at least an F-4, the second-strongest tornado classification, with winds between 207 mph and 260 mph.

Destruction is nothing knew to the people of Oklahoma and Kansas. The two mid-western states are hit by around 1000 twisters a year.

The deadly winds are formed by fast-rising hot air from the plains clashing with colder, turbulent air above. As global warming increases, experts are predicting the number of tornadoes will increase.

Ironically, days before the storm, Oklahoma residents had been involved in a tornado awareness campaign, learning about safety measures.

Yesterday, after five hours of hell, they began to pick up the pieces of their shattered homes, possessions and lives.

And the people of Tornado Alley were left wondering when the next twister would strike.