Anguished hunt for scores missing after US tornado

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JOPLIN: Rescue teams and anguished families Wednesday were desperately searching for nearly 1,500 people listed as missing since a tornado ripped through a Missouri town, killing at least 125 residents.

But hopes of finding more survivors were fading as the third day of painstaking searches through the devastated homes of Joplin found no one in the rubble neither dead nor alive.

Officials are hoping that many of the missing have simply failed to check in with friends or family, but they also caution that the death toll is sure to rise given the incredible scope of destruction.

In what is one of the worst tornado seasons on record after a series of twisters killed hundreds in southern US states last month, Sunday's twister in Joplin is now the worst single tornado to strike America in six decades.

The massive twister tore apart everything it touched along a path four miles (six kilometers) long and three quarters of a mile (over a kilometer) wide of this city of 50,000.

Heartbreaking stories were being replayed hourly on the local radio and on social networking sites as people searched for their loved ones, including panicked parents separated from their children.

The American Red Cross has set up a website for people to list the names of the missing, but they have had little success so far reuniting families.

Further complicating matters is the fact that officials have not released the names of the dead.

More than 8,000 structures in this town bordering the heartland states of Kansas and Oklahoma were damaged or destroyed when the twister came roaring through with just a 24-minute warning.

In yet another tragedy, more twisters hit Oklahoma late Tuesday, killing at least eight people.

US President Barack Obama, on a visit to London, again sent his condolences to the people of Missouri, ahead of a visit to the area on Sunday. (AFP)