A tornado wiped out most of a small farming town in southwestern Kansas, killing nine people and injuring at least 63, emergency officials said during the weekend.

The funnel cloud hit Greensburg , smashing buildings, overturning vehicles and knocking out communications towers. Aerial television news footage showed ruins throughout the community of about 1,800 people. Rescue workers were going door to door, aided by National Guard troops. Some residents said on television that emergency sirens had given them about 20 minutes of warning before the punishing winds the town.

?There is the possibility of others being found,? said Sharon Watson, a spokeswoman for the state emergency management agency, about the number of people killed. ?It?s a significant disaster in terms of an entire town being nearly wiped out. It is certainly a tremendous amount of damage and rubble.? She had no estimate on how much property damage the storm caused.