Instructions: In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Input: ST LOUIS, Missouri (Reuters) - Suspected tornadoes killed at least six people in an Illinois town and three more in Missouri as powerful storms ripped through the Midwest, obliterating homes, churches and businesses across six states, authorities said on Wednesday. 
  
 Six of the deaths occurred in Harrisburg, Illinois, according to Governor Pat Quinn's office, citing the Saline County coroner. Earlier, state officials said the coroner counted 10 fatalities in Harrisburg. 
  
 A storm temporarily closed the famous entertainment strip in the music city of Branson, Missouri, where country music and other performers draw thousands of people a day to shows. 
  
 The hardest hit community appeared to be Harrisburg, Illinois, where television images from the town of 10,000 showed collapsed buildings and overturned trucks, with mattresses and other debris caught in tree branches. 
  
 "(The tornado) cut a path of destruction that was just devastating," Harrisburg Mayor Eric Gregg told CNN. 
  
 "There are semis toppled, cars thrown into lakes, and everything else. It's nothing like I've ever seen and hope to never see again," Gregg said. 
  
 A Walmart and another shopping center were smashed, an apartment building was hit and a hospital was damaged, and the city sustained millions of dollars in damage, the mayor said. There was a roughly one-quarter mile long trail of damage in Harrisburg. 
  
 A separate tornado killed a person in a mobile home park in rural Buffalo, Missouri, and another 13 were injured by a suspected twister, said Lamont Swanson, coroner for Dallas County. 
  
 "There was very extensive damage in that trailer park," Swanson said. "I saw one residence completely destroyed." 
  
 A man in Stoddard County in southeast Missouri was killed when his mobile home was destroyed. His wife was severely injured. 
  
 "It looks like it just exploded," Dale Moreland of the county's emergency management service said of their home. 
  
 A 70-year-old man died in Cassville, Missouri when he was thrown from his mobile home by high winds, Barr County Sheriff Mick Epperly said in a news release. 
  
 The governors of Illinois, Missouri and Kansas declared emergencies. 
  
 Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said there was "widespread damage in several communities," including in the tourist mecca Branson. 
  
 The violent weather tracked through Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service. There were tornado watches issued for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Ohio. The Weather Service said there had been preliminary reports of 18 tornadoes touching down across the region since late Tuesday. 
  
 Last year, tornado outbreaks caused 550 U.S. deaths, one of the deadliest in the nation's history and the most in nearly a century, according to the Weather Service. The highest death tolls were from an April outbreak in Alabama and Mississippi that claimed 364 lives, and a tornado in Joplin, Missouri, on May 22 that killed 161 people. 
  
 Twisters caused $28.7 billion in damage last year, according to the U.S. National Climatic Data Center. 
  
 There had been two tornado-related deaths in 2012 before Tuesday, both in Alabama on January 23. 
  
 The violent weather tore into Kentucky on Wednesday, injuring at least eight people, one critically, said state emergency management spokesman Buddy Rogers. 
  
 "We're getting hammered," Rogers said. "This is a pretty widespread weather event." 
  
 Rogers said at least five homes caught fire, the roof of an elementary school gymnasium was blown off in Muhlenberg County but no students were injured. 
  
 Several homes were destroyed and others damaged in and around Newburgh, Indiana, emergency officials said, though there were no deaths or injuries reported. 
  
 The suspected tornado was a half-mile wide on the ground, based on the damage, said Madison Seib, a public information officer in Warrick County, Indiana. Warning sirens alerted residents to take cover, she said. 
  
 The storm whipped through Branson, Missouri early on Wednesday morning, damaging the theater and restaurant district known as "the strip" and knocking out power to most of the community. 
  
 "We are still in shock," said Rose Atchley in the city administrator's office. "The strip is totally shut off. There is lots of debris here and there. We are struggling along." 
  
 If the storm had struck earlier, when people were attending shows, the toll could have been worse, Atchley said. 
  
 Kansas officials said a suspected tornado inflicted heavy damage to Harveyville near the state capital of Topeka, critically injuring three people. Eight others suffered minor injuries. 
  
 (Reporting by David Bailey, James Kelleher, Kevin Murphy, Bruce Olson and Carey Gillam; Writing by Andrew Stern; Editing by Greg McCune) ||||| Story highlights A total of seven deaths have been reported 
  
 Five are killed in Illinois when a tornado strikes 
  
 The tornado was "absolutely devastating," mayor says 
  
 A storm system that produced a number of tornadoes in the Midwest was blamed for at least seven deaths in two states, officials said Wednesday. 
  
 At least three people were killed when a tornado touched down in Harrisburg, Illinois, early Wednesday, the Saline County Sheriff's Office said. About 100 others were injured. 
  
 The number of fatalities in Harrisburg could rise, the city's mayor said, in the wake of the twister that appeared to have been on the ground for several miles, said the city's mayor, Eric Gregg. The path of destruction was about three or four football fields wide, he said. 
  
 The scene in the southern part of Harrisburg, where the tornado struck, was one of debris and collapsed houses. Commercial and residential buildings were crushed. A tractor-trailer could be seen laying on its side, off the highway. 
  
 Crews were searching "piece by piece" for survivors, Gregg said. 
  
 It was "a path of destruction that is absolutely devastating," he said. "It's a very difficult day for a very good community in southern Illinois." 
  
 JUST WATCHED Tornado leveled Illinois homes, stores Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tornado leveled Illinois homes, stores 01:03 
  
 JUST WATCHED Severe storms wreak havoc in Midwest Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Severe storms wreak havoc in Midwest 01:35 
  
 JUST WATCHED Storm slashes through Kansas town Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Storm slashes through Kansas town 01:00 
  
 JUST WATCHED Storm damage in Missouri town Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Storm damage in Missouri town 00:47 
  
 At least five people were killed in Harrisburg because of the storm, he said. 
  
 According to the sheriff's office, some 100 people were injured and between 250 and 300 houses were damaged or destroyed. Some 25 businesses were also damaged or destroyed, the sheriff's office said. 
  
 Crews were also examining some structural damage to the Harrisburg Medical Center, to judge whether any patients must be moved, Gregg said. 
  
 "It's like nothing I've ever seen, and something I don't care to see again," he said. 
  
 Earlier, two deaths were reported in Missouri as a result of the storms. 
  
 A woman was killed overnight in Dallas County, Missouri, the coroner there said, without giving further details. 
  
 An apparent tornado near Cassville, Missouri, left another person dead, the Barry County Sheriff's Office said. That person was thrown out of a mobile home, the sheriff's office said. 
  
 Tornado in Kansas captured on video 
  
 The pounding rain and swirling, destructive winds raking several Plains states injured others in Kansas, as well. That state was socked Tuesday night and Gov. Sam Brownback declared a state of emergency for a small town hit badly by the severe weather. 
  
 The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center issued tornado watches through noon for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Arkansas, Illinois and Missouri. 
  
 Along with tornadoes, the center warned of the possibility of golf-ball-sized hail, winds up to 75 miles per hour and "dangerous lightning." 
  
 The state of emergency was declared for the tiny Kansas town of Harveyville, about 20 miles southwest of Topeka. Emergency teams combed the community to assess damage. Authorities said they believe a tornado hit the town Tuesday night. 
  
 Some homes and a church were damaged, and there were numerous reports of trees and power lines down throughout the area, according to the Kansas Adjutant General's Department. 
  
 At least one person was critically injured and transported to a hospital in Topeka while four others were briefly trapped in a structure. 
  
 "It is quite hectic," said Bill Beasley of the American Medical Response for Shawnee and Wabaunsee counties, who said nine ambulances were dispatched to the scene. 
  
 The American Red Cross is assisting and officials have set up a shelter at a local high school. 
  
 There were also reports of a tornado touchdown in Kansas' Reno County, near Hutchinson, and another in central Nebraska. 
  
 The same powerful winter storm system spawned the severe weather in Dallas County, Missouri, and along the Missouri-Arkansas border. 
  
 A path of destruction cut six to seven miles through Taney County, Missouri, damaging homes and businesses, according to Sheriff Jim Russell, who said there were "some injuries," but no reports of fatalities. 
  
 The resort community of Branson is in the county. Russell said he had no specific information about damage in the town. |||||  
  
 Branson, Mo. on a sunny dayWhen I was growing up, the word "tornado" brought to mind just one thing: Dorothy and her red shoes. But as I sat watching video of some of the twisters that claimed untold lives as it blew through Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois, and left serious damage behind in the tourist hot spot city of Branson, Missouri last night, we all got a sad reminder that you can only put a nice face on something awful for so long. 
  
 Branson is one of those tourist towns that seems perfect when you're on vacation. But footage of it today shows the reality of life in an area prone to devastating weather. Likewise, the movies paint tornadoes as these romantic gusts of wind that blow into town and change things for the better. But real tornadoes don't wander around looking for scary witches and suddenly drop houses on them. Real tornadoes look more like this: 
  
 That didn't look like some fun kid's movie, did it? Maybe because that video, shot by storm chasers, show some of the tornadoes in a series of storms that killed three people in Harrisburg, Illinois right before dawn when most of us were cuddled up under the covers. The tornadoes killed someone's loved one in a trailer park in Buffalo, Missouri. They left three people seriously injured in Harveyville, Kansas. And those are just the figures we have now -- each time I read a new news story, the death toll seems to rise. 
  
 And of course there's the damage as far as the eye can see. Branson seems to be getting the most attention today because people who don't live in the area have at least heard of it and its amusement park. They may even have vacationed there. The town is a mess. The roof of the Wal-Mart's blown in, there are cars on their tops with the wheels in the air, the famous Variety Theatre took a hard hit, and if you ever stayed at the Best Western Hotel, well, never again ... it's gone. 
  
 These are all cold hard facts that shake us out of our "aww, it's so twee" Hollywood view of these horrific weather incidents. Ironically the first term that comes to mind when I think of something shocking us out of complacency is from The Wizard of Oz itself: "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore." 
  
 Have you visited Branson on a nice day? Is it a shock to remember your pleasant vacation in this awful context? 
  
 Image via doug_wertman/Flickr |||||
Output:
At least nine people are dead as a violent storm system sweeps across the Midwest, causing tornadoes, pounding rain, high winds, golf-ball-sized hail, and "dangerous lightning." "It's like nothing I've ever seen, and something I don't care to see again," says the mayor of Harrisburg, Illinois, where Reuters reports that at least six people have been killed in a twister that caused a path of destruction as wide as three or four football fields. "There are semis toppled, cars thrown into lakes, and everything else," the mayor says. The death toll could rise, as crews are searching "piece by piece" for survivors, he adds. At least three people were also killed in Missouri, one of them in a tornado near Cassville, and communities including tourist hotspot Branson have suffered damage. Injuries were also reported in Kansas, where a state of emergency has been declared in at least one town. A tornado also touched down in central Nebraska, and other states including Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, and Arkansas have been affected, CNN reports. Click for footage of the tornadoes.