LAWRENCE, Kan. (AP) - A swarms of tornadoes killed at least 10 people across the Midwest, shut down the University of Kansas, and damaging so much of Springfield, Ill., that the mayor said "every square inch" of town suffered the effects. At the University of Kansas, officials called of classes Monday after 60 percent of the buildings were damaged by a storm littered campus with fallen branches, ripped up roofs and hail.
In Missouri, severe weather was blamed for nine deaths, including four killed in and around the small town of Renick in north-central Missouri. A 63-year-old man died early Monday of injuries suffered when a tornado hit near Marionville and a couple was killed late Saturday when a tornado hurled their pickup truck beneath a propane tank as they drove along a rural stretch of highway 80 miles south of St. Louis.
A woman was killed Sunday as she tried to seek refuge from a tornado in her mobile home south of Sedalia.
Bobby Ritcheson, 23, said he watched as his neighbor was killed.
"The trailer came down right on top of her," said Ritcheson, who talked to The Associated Press at a Sedalia hospital where he had taken his pregnant wife out of concern she might be going into labor.
One storm-related death was reported in Indiana.
The severe weather followed a powerful storm that ripped through southern Missouri and southern Illinois late Saturday.
John Gagan, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Springfield, Mo., said there would be no way of knowing the scope of the damage until Monday morning.
"We do not know the extent of this, since it's ongoing and fresh," he said. "Reports are coming in as we speak, but we won't know how bad it is until the light of day."
In Kansas, Provost David Shulenberger said classes were canceled Monday at the University of Kansas because of safety concerns about debris falling from rooftops. The Lawrence campus was littered with trees, roof tiles and window glass.
Two trees fell through Rhonda Burns' trailer in the town early Sunday.
"If the wind had shifted that tree just a few inches, I wouldn't be talking to you," she said.
The storm was the first of several that passed through eastern Kansas and across most of Missouri on Sunday. High winds lifted a cargo container off the airfield at Kansas City International Airport and blew it into several vehicles. Hail—some the size of baseballs—was reported in several northwest Missouri counties.
Tornadoes also touched down Sunday in Oklahoma and Arkansas, while heavy rains and flooding swamped roads in Indiana. One storm-related fatality was reported Sunday in Indiana, where a man drowned after falling from a boat, state Department of Homeland Security spokesman Andy Zirkle said.
In northeastern Oklahoma, a tornado destroyed 25 to 50 homes when it ripped through rural Delaware County near the town of Oaks, said Mike Miller, spokesman for the Cherokee Nation.
At least 12 people were transported to a hospital, although none appeared to suffer life-threatening injuries, Miller said.
Meanwhile a tornado that tore through northwestern Arkansas late Sunday heavily damaged several dozen homes.
Greg Kospar, 41, of Bentonville, Ark., said he was awakened by his wife shortly before the storm hit.
"It was over before you knew it," Kospar said. "The house is gone. It sucks, it sucks big time."
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Associated Press reporters F.N. D'Alessio in Chicago, Noah Trister in Bentonville, Ark., David Lieb in Sedalia, Mo., Garance Burke and Margaret Stafford in Kansas City, and Jim Salter in St. Louis contributed to this report.
