AT LEAST 38 people were killed following a weekend of tornadoes and violent weather across a wide area from Texas to Ohio, officials said.
President Clinton has declared nine Arkansas counties disaster areas, making them eligible for federal funds after tornadoes caused at least 24 deaths in the state, with at least 200 others injured.
Arkansas was the hardest hit as tornadoes tore through Arkadelphia and the area around Little Rock, the state capital, emergency services spokesman, Mr Ray Briggler, said.
"The best word that we could use to describe what's happened here is apocalyptic," the Governor of Arkansas, Mr Mike Huckabee, said yesterday.
It is something equivalent to huge bombing run from the south west corner to the north east corner of Arkansas. We have a wide swathe of devastation where it's just unprecedented in its scope, and it's really draining our resources, because we have such a wide area to fry to cover."
In Arkadelphia, with a population of 10,000, a tornado tore through the town centre, leaving nothing but rubble in its wake.
The tornado destroyed at least one restaurant, a car repair shop and partially damaged the Clark County Courthouse. Mobile home parks were also destroyed.
President Clinton, who served five terms Arkansas governor, is to visit the state today, the White House said.
Violent weather also brought tornadoes and flooding to other states.
Nine deaths were reported in Kentucky, where flooding left many towns without telephone service, electrical power or drinking water.
Cities along the Licking River and its tributaries were worst hit.
"It's off our charts," National Weather Service hydrologist, Mr Mike Callahan, in Louisville, said of the Licking River. "You can't tell how high the Licking River is at Blue Licks Spring because the gauge is under water."
Winds estimated at 100 m.p.h. tore through Navarro County, Texas, on Sunday, killing a man and his daughter.
Storms and flooding also hit the mid western state of Ohio, where two people were dead and 11 were missing, said Mr Jim Williams, chief of staff of Ohio's emergency management agency.