Rescue operations ended after a day of searching through demolished homes and debris-strewn fields along the 12-mile-long path of the tornado, said Missouri State Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Dan Bracker.
Thirteen of the dead were in Newton County near the Oklahoma border, with one person killed in Jasper County and one in Barry County.
Between 8,000 and 9,000 people were reported without power, which is expected to take at least a week to restore.
Susan Roberts, 61, stared at the smashed remains of her classic 1985 Cadillac sitting on her living room floor - the only thing left of her home. A woman who had apparently sought shelter in the car died there, she said.
"That is what is tearing me up," Roberts said, adding she had warned the woman - who had stopped to change a tire - about the nearby tornado.
Roberts said she left her rental house just six minutes before the tornado hit about 6 p.m. Saturday, taking her 13-year-old grandson with her because he is afraid of tornados. A storm spotter stopped to warn her of the tornado as she was leaving.
"I'm from Kansas. I grew up watching storms," she said as she walked through the debris. "If I didn't have my grandson with me, I probably wouldn't have left."
The same storm system started in Oklahoma, where it killed six people before moving into southwest Missouri. On Sunday, storms in Georgia killed at least one person there.
President Bush has talked with Gov. Matt Blunt to express his condolences for the lives lost and to discuss the state's needs for recovery, said White House spokesman Blair Jones.
"The federal government will be moving hard to help," President Bush said.
Susie Stonner, spokeswoman for the State Emergency Management Agency, said it was unclear how many homes were damaged or destroyed. But she said Newton County officials had initial estimates of 50 homes damaged or destroyed there.
Nineteen people were hospitalized in Newton County, which includes Seneca, said Keith Stammer, acting spokesman the county emergency operations. He did not know the extent of their injuries.
The tornado that swept through the area was approximately 300 yards wide and stayed mostly on the ground for about 12 miles. It hit the rural area about eight miles north of Seneca and went east, said Stammer. The tornado stayed on the ground about 15 minutes.
Next door to Roberts, Jane Lant climbed over the splintered wood to go through the mud-caked remains of her bridal shop.
"I just feel so awful, going through this rubble when they are out looking for bodies," she said as she motioned to the search dogs wandering the field behind her. An unidentified body lay under a blue tarp nearby.
Among the dead were five family members of her neighbor who had been going to a wedding when the tornado caught their vehicle on the highway in front of her store, she said. Her neighbor, an insurance agent, had just come back from Oklahoma after checking on damage there when his son drove into their driveway to tell him that his mother, sister, brother-in-law, nephew and a daughter-in-law's grandfather had been killed.
Hours later Lant had recovered one wedding dress along with boxes of tuxedo shoes.
"This is just surreal," she said.
Next door, her husband's feed store also lay in shambles. But one bright moment came Sunday when rescuers heard chirping from underneath the mound and found a half dozen baby chicks. They had rescued about 100 the night earlier.
When a Missouri Highway patrolman came over to offer the family help, Bill Lant pointed to the intact glass coffee pot amid all the destruction and vowed he would rebuild the feed store.
Across the street at the home of Wayne Litherland, family and friends were busy carting furniture and other belongings out of the storm-damaged home and into a large trailer. Their roof was blown off. A car in their driveway was thrown 140 feet away.
"We ran to the store to get Mother's Day cards," he said. "We came home and this is what we found."
It took them a while to find the dog they had left in the house.
"Trucks are just trucks, cars are just cars, clothes are just clothes," Litherland said. "There are people who lost loved ones."
Bonnie Fanning, 77, said the best investment she ever made was the $2,500 she used to build her concrete storm shelter three years ago. She made it to the shelter just 10 minutes before the tornado demolished her mobile home - leaving little trace of it other than the deck.
"I am scared to death of tornados," Fanning said as she took a break from picking up the bits of plywood from her yard north of Seneca. Her daughter had called to warn her of the impending storm. She spent about 20 minutes in the shelter, listening to the tornado tear off the vent and blow debris against the shelter door.
"It roared down in there," she said. "I knew it was a funnel."
She figured she would buy a small travel trailer and live in it on the property until she figured out what to do next.
"I am not depressed or anything," she said. "No use to get all upset about it. What are you going to do?"
Her next door neighbor, Verda McKenna had gone into town for some groceries and supper when the tornado hit. She came home to find her mobile completely gone.
"If I had been home, I would be gone," she said. "I thank the Lord I wasn't home."
Family and friends came out Sunday to help her pick up whatever she could salvage.
"I think I am still kind of in shock," she said.
Down the road, Brian and Angie Roark were salvaging a few clothes, kitchen items and their photos and scrapbooks while they waited for their insurance adjuster.
They were heading for Neosho when they suddenly found themselves in the storm.
"Everything was swirling behind me," she said. "We just outran it."
