Tornado Levels South Dakota Town

A tornado destroyed much of this small town during the night, killing at least six people and injuring scores.

The twister late Saturday may have been one-quarter of a mile wide, witnesses said.

Apartment buildings, houses, the bank, churches, the post office, and other buildings were damaged, according to resident Virgean Kirby.

She said her neighborhood sustained little damage, but "but the rest of the town is a complete disaster."

Gov. Bill Janklow activated the National Guard, and about 100 prison inmates also were sent to help look for people trapped or injured.

"The entire town is destroyed, there are deceased people and a lot of injured people," the governor said. "But there is a good effort going on here. It's very organized, and we're evaluating all the people who are mobile and the uninjured."

At least five people were killed, McCook County Sheriff Gene Taylor told CBS affiliate KELO-TV in Sioux Falls.

The television station reported that 150 people were injured.

And the storm's destruction wasn't limited to South Dakota. Violent thunderstorms also struck parts of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan during the night, with wind gusting to 80 mph. And utilities said hundreds of thousands of customers were without power Sunday.

The storm worked its way east and CBS News Correspondent Jeffrey Kofman reported that tornado warnings were going out across New York State and Massachusetts, as well as other parts of the Northeast.

Janklow asked that people in South Dakota not use their cellular phones. "So many people are using cellular phones it's jamming the system and the emergency system cannot use them," he said during the night.

Marlene Schumm of Sioux Falls had gone to visit an aunt in Spencer.

"My husband said `Basement! Basement!' We had just gotten there before it hit. The town is destroyed from what we could see," she said.

Spencer, a town of 300, is about 45 miles west of Sioux Falls.