AP correspondent Andale (AHN-dayl) Gross reports emergency officials are reporting fatalities.
Oklahoma Emergency Management spokeswoman Michelann (MYK'-ul-ann) Ooten says a tornado has pounded Picher, Oklahoma.
Strong storms rip apart homes
Tornadoes rack central U.S., kill at least 19
23 dead in Mo., Okla., Ga. after new round of storms
At least 15 people died in southwestern Missouri. In the fading mining town of Picher, Okla., 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.
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 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 high 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 Saturday 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.
The area is part of a Superfund site, and residents have been asked to take part in state and federal buyouts in recent years.
''From what I've been able to determine, that wouldn't have any bearing on whether a disaster declaration would come forth,'' said Federal Emergency Management Agency spokesman Earl Armstrong.
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, one of at least six tornadoes in Georgia killed a person in Dublin, about 120 miles southeast 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.
The small town of Kite was destroyed by the storm, said Caroline Pope, a spokeswoman for the Johnson County Sheriff's Department. Close to 1,000 people live in the community, she said.
''From what they're telling me, it's gone,'' she said from the dispatch center in the jail, which was operating on a generator because the power was out.
Storms later Sunday in North Carolina destroyed several mobile homes, but there was no word on injuries, said Patty McQuillan of the state police.
President Bush has talked with governors to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss needs for recovery, according to the White House.
''The federal government will be moving hard to help,'' Bush said.
In Missouri, the tornado hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and continued east, said Keith Stammer, director of emergency management in Jasper County.
Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the 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.
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 Feb. 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.
Gov. Mike Beebe planned to tour storm damage in Stuttgart on Monday.
Associated Press writers Murray Evans in Picher, Dorie Turner in Atlanta and Chuck Bartels in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.
