CHICAGO - At least 14 people were killed and an entire town was wipped out after tornados blew through the US heartland and inflicted extensive property damage Friday afternoon, local press reported.

Members of the Milton Fire department work to clear storm damage after a tornado hit the fire house in Milton, Kentucky March 2, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

In Indiana, eight people died and a small town called Marysville was destroyed. Five others were killed in Kentucky while a man is found dead in an Ohio mobile home.

Storm warnings were being issued across the Midwest and the Southeast, with schools, government offices and businesses shutting down ahead of the storms, which arrived on the heels of a series of tornadoes that killed 13 people in Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee two days ago.

There was "extensive damage" to the Henryville Junior-Senior High School in the Clark County, Indiana, according to Maj. Chuck Adams of the county sheriff's department.

The school building's roof were torn off, with parts of the walls knocked down and windows blown out.

Students who remained at the school when the disaster struck suffered only minor injuries such as cuts and bruises.

National Weather Service meteorologist John Gordon said they have about "half a dozen reports of tornadoes on the ground" as well as reports about "significant damage". He warned that the worst may still be to come.

The threat of tornadoes was expected to remain in place till late Friday for parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana and Ohio.