tornado over highway near Moundridge  Kansas
tornado over highway near Moundridge KansasReuters

Hundreds of tornadoes roared through the U.S. Midwest Saturday and Sunday, and the National Weather Service has posted a warning of “life-threatening” storms. In Iowa, one small town was virtually destroyed. In Witchita, Kansas, one person at a trailer park Twitted there was "uncontrollable chaos." Five people were killed in Oklahoma.

Officials in the town of Thurman, Iowa said the storms destroyed nearly 90 percent of the community, home to 250 people. However, no injuries were reported.

Hailstones that were the size of baseballs accompanied the tornadoes that snaked their way through Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa, where one twister struck a hospital in the city of Creston. A hospital spokeswoman said patients were being moved out of the medical facility into a temporary hospital set up nearby. Three churches provided shelter for local residents whose homes were wrecked or flooded.

Elsewhere, tornados packing winds more than 200 kilometers an hour overturned several semi-trailers and blew away farmhouses and barns.

One storm chaser narrowly escaped a tornado as he repositioned his car. In the video below, filmed in Texas late last week, hail reportedly piled up to a height of 2-4 feet.