Michelle Wendt talks on a cell phone outside wreckage of her destroyed home near Racine, Missouri, 11 May 2008

People across the central and southern United States are starting to clean up Monday after a severe weather system tore through the region, spawning more than 70 tornadoes.

Officials blame the tornadoes for 22 deaths in three states on Saturday and Sunday.

Some of the worst damage was reported in the central state of Missouri. The storms also claimed lives in the southern state of Georgia and the central state of Oklahoma, where six people were killed in the town of Picher.

Federal officials are expected to tour the region Monday to assess the damage and to assure residents more help is on the way.

A separate storm system Monday is battering parts of the eastern U.S. with heavy rains and strong winds.

Emergency officials in Delaware say flooding along coastal parts of the state has forced many communities to evacuate.

Storms have also left tens of thousands of people without power in Washington, D.C., and surrounding areas.

A car sits where a house once was after a deadly tornado swept through southwest Missouri near Seneca, 10 May 2008

U.S. President George Bush expressed concern for the victims of the storms Sunday and said he would be in touch with the governors of the affected states.

Aid organizations including the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army are also helping with the clean up efforts, providing meals, showers and supplies to residents that have been left homeless.