ILLINOIS LT. GOV. SHEILA SIMON talks with Sharon Murray, 61, in front of her destroyed home in Harrisburg, Ill., on Wednesday. Murray’s grandchildren, Alli Ferrell, 10, left, and Christian Murray, 12, watch Lindsey Murray, 15, paint “for sale fixer upper” on siding leaning against the home. Twisters roared through the nation’s heartland in the early morning darkness Wednesday, flattening entire blocks of homes in small-town Illinois and Kansas. BELOW LEFT, an aerial photo shows a path of damage stretching west from the backside of a Walmart Supercenter to the east in Harrisburg, Ill., after a severe storm hit Wednesday. Several deaths have been reported in Harrisburg and left the city’s medical center scrambling to treat an influx of injured, the hospital’s top administrator said. BELOW RIGHT, insurance agent Jim Williams looks over the church bells that had fallen to the ground at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church after a severe storm hit in the early morning hours Wednesday in Ridgway, Ill.

KENDRA McKINLEY pulls a flag from the debris of her grandparents’ river camp home in Henderson, Ky., on Wednesday. Waves of strong storms ripped roofs off homes, apartment buildings and a bank and destroyed several buildings in north-central Kentucky. BELOW LEFT, residents and volunteers line up for food and drink, the morning after severe storms destroyed several homes and businesses in Harveyville, Kan. BELOW RIGHT, Helen Powell is offered shelter from the rain by Patti Greer, Powell’s daughter, as she awaits word on her home in Newburgh, Ind., on Wednesday morning. A tornado swept across an Ohio River town early Wednesday, damaging several homes in the historic riverside district as a powerful line of thunderstorms cut across the Midwest.