Deadly twister flattens Kansas town
• NEW: More severe weather may hit Kansas later Saturday
• Six killed by tornado in Kiowa County, officials say
• City administrator says town of Greensburg evacuated
• About 90 percent of Greensburg heavily damaged or destroyed
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(CNN) -- A powerful tornado killed at least six people as it wiped out Greensburg, Kansas, on Friday night, emergency official Sharon Watson said Saturday.
A seventh person died in Stafford County, about 30 miles away, according to Watson, of the Kansas Emergency Management Agency.
The storm destroyed or seriously damaged about 90 percent of the rural town, the American Red Cross said. Greensburg has about 1,600 residents and is located about 110 miles west of Wichita.
The twister demolished the central business district, city hall and a high school, but the courthouse remained standing, witnesses said.
"There's just nothing left in a lot of these areas," said Sgt. Ron Knoefel of the Kansas Highway Patrol. (Watch homes turned into piles of bricks and splintered wood )
Greensburg was evacuated as rescuers continued to search for victims, City Administrator Steve Hewitt told CNN affiliate KSN.
"We will not reopen the town until we know it's safe for the residents to come back," Hewitt said.
According to the National Weather Service, central Kansas may face more severe weather Saturday afternoon into the overnight hours.
The Kiowa County Memorial Hospital partially collapsed, trapping 30 people who were later rescued with minor injuries, according to Watson.
About 55 people who were injured by the storm in Greensburg were driven 50 miles east to Pratt Regional Medical Center for treatment, according to hospital spokeswoman Kim Stivers. Some of them were transferred to other hospitals.
Storm chaser Darin Brunin, who followed the tornado into Greensburg, told CNN it appeared to be at least a mile wide and relatively slow.
"A big tornado like that, that moves slower, it can tend to do a lot more damage because it's over an area for a longer amount of time," he said.
The National Weather Service described the tornado as a "wedge," a very wide, tall twister, and said it had received reports that the tornado was at least three quarters of a mile wide, The Associated Press reported.
"As we approached Greensburg ... it was really a scene of shock, you know, disbelief," Brunin said. "There were people walking on the highway just in shock, not even knowing really what had happened."
"Before we got to Greensburg, there were a herd of cows on the highway that were severely injured," he said. "It wasn't a pleasant sight to see at all -- very horrible." (Watch tornado survivors climb out of damaged building )
Katie White told AP she was driving through Greensburg when she heard the tornado warning. She drove into a convenience store parking lot and the store owner pulled her and a dozen other people into a large walk-in freezer for safety, the AP said.
When they came out, White said, the store was gone.
Another storm chaser, Marty Logan, took a dramatic photo of a tornado backlit by a burst of lightning south of Greensburg. He estimated that it was at least a half-mile wide. Two smaller tornadoes were following to the right of the larger twister as they swept northward into Greensburg, he said. (Watch another tornado touch down in Oklahoma )
The Red Cross was using school and charter buses to transport hundreds of Greensburg residents about 10 miles east to shelters opened in Haviland, Kansas, at a high school and a college, Watson said.
About 100 Red Cross officials rushed to the town. Some of the volunteers planned to work with the Federal Emergency Medical Agency "to assess how many families were affected and to what extent, and then we'll have a better picture of what we're looking at," Red Cross spokeswoman Andrea Anglin said.
The Kansas National Guard dispatched 40 troops to Greensburg to help with security, and hazardous materials teams have also been sent to look at several overturned rail cars, Watson said.
