Tornado Outbreak Updates:

 JOPLIN, Mo. — Tornadoes up to a mile wide ripped through parts of the Midwest today killing 24 people in a Missouri town where a hospital was damaged. The Govenor has declared a state of emergency and called out the National Guard. Damage was widespread across the south side of Joplin, Mo., John Campbell, operations director for the Missouri State Emergency Management Agency.

 The Springfield News-Leader reported that Ryan Nicholls with the Springfield-Greene County Office of Emergency Management had confirmed 24 fatalities in the wake of a tornado touching down in Joplin, city of about 50,000 people about 160 miles south of Kansas City.

The number of injuries was unknown.

Donald Davis, a Joplin resident, said he drove through Joplin shortly after the tornado hit and saw a damaged high school, churches and apartment complex, according to the News Leader.

The newspaper reported Davis said Joplin High School had its windows broken out and part of the roof missing.

 "Right across the street is a church," said Davis, a nurse at the Freeman Cancer Center. "It's demolished. It's flattened."

Phone communications in and out of the city were largely cut off.

The National Weather Service said there were no watches in effect for metro Detroit, but a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until 10:15 p.m. in Shiawassee County, west of Flint.

The storm was part of a series that battered the Midwest tonight. Tornado warnings and watches were posted from Texas to Michigan.

The National Weather Service said there were no watches in effect for metro Detroit, but a severe thunderstorm watch was in effect until 10:15 p.m. in Shiawassee County, west of Flint.

Weather service meteorologist Amos Dodson in White Lake Township predicted rain tonight for metro Detroit, with thunderstorms tomorrow, possibly severe. He said a low pressure system is moving across the Great Lakes.

In Minneapolis, city spokeswoman Sara Dietrich said the death was confirmed by the Hennepin County medical examiner. She had no other immediate details. Only two of the 29 people injured there were hurt critically.

In Wisconsin, a powerful storm caused significant damage in La Crosse, tearing roofs from homes and sending emergency responders to search damaged buildings for anyone trapped inside, officials said. La Crosse County sheriff's dispatcher Tim Vogel described the damage as "significant" but said there were no immediate reports of serious injuries.

Those storms followed a tornado Saturday night that swept through a small eastern Kansas town, killing one person and destroying at least 20 homes, as severe thunderstorms pelted the region with hail that some residents described as the size of baseballs, authorities said today.

Kansas Division of Emergency Management spokeswoman Sharon Watson identified the victim as Don Chesmore, 53, of Reading. He was in a mobile home that flipped. He was taken to a hospital in Emporia, where he was pronounced dead.