Severe weather kills 10 in southwest Mo.

At least 10 people were killed after severe storms spawned tornadoes and high winds across sections of southwestern Missouri on Saturday, the State Emergency Management Agency said. Eight of the dead were killed when a twister struck near Seneca in Newton County.

A ninth fatality was reported north of Purdy in Barry County after a tornado hit there, the National Weather Service said. A fifth person, a 17-year-old girl, died near Carthage in Jasper County after heavy winds knocked a tree onto a trailer, said Capt. Tom Nixon of the Carthage Fire Department.

"The last two years we've had floods and tornadoes -- it's just one right after another," said Susie Stonner of SEMA.

The number of injuries across the area was not immediately available. Most of the injured from the area and from fatal storms in Oklahoma were being treated at Joplin hospitals.

The tornado near Seneca was reported shortly after 6 p.m. Saturday. The storm in Jasper County occurred about 20 minutes later.

The first twister apparently started near Chetopa, Kan., crossed the state line east of Baxter Springs and bore down on an area near Iris Road and Route BB northeast of Seneca, National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Davis told The Joplin Globe. The storm then traveled to Granby and Monett before moving into Purdy.

"By that time, it was a severe thunderstorm, but up to then, it was tornadic, with winds of at least 80 to 100 miles an hour," he told the Globe.

Damage, he said, "was in a wide path with a lot of houses destroyed and damaged."

The storm "absolutely leveled many homes," overturned cars and tore down trees in northern Newton County, Sheriff Ken Copeland told The Globe.

Copeland said emergency crews had trouble getting in and out of the area because of people who had come to see the damage.

"If it's people coming to check on relatives I can understand," he said. "But other people just coming down to look are making it hard for emergency crews to get in, and we're having to use people for traffic control when they need to be out helping the victims."