Craig T. Kojima / staradvertiser.com

A home in Lanikai was severely damaged by a waterspout that came ashore in Oahu on Friday, March 9. The front and back of home was damaged.

msnbc.com staff reports: A rare tornado blew roofs off homes and left other damage in its path through the Hawaiian communities of Lanikai and Enchanted Lake on Oahu, weather officials confirmed Friday.

A National Weather Service  team surveying damage and talking to witnesses determined a waterspout came ashore and was reclassified as a tornado in Lanikai about 7:30 a.m. The 20-yard-wide tornado traveled about 1.5 miles in 15 minutes to Enchanted Lake with wind speeds reaching 60 to 70 mph before dissipating, officials said.

Hawaii, known for its famous sunshine, has been hit with unusually harsh weather for about a week.

Burl Burlingame / staradvertiser.com

Kaeo DePonte stands with a trampoline lifted out of an Enchanted Lake yard by high winds on Friday morning.

A 30-minute hail storm on Friday in Oahu was “unprecedented ,” Tom Birchard, senior meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Honolulu, told the Associated Press. Some of the hail stones have been unusually large for the islands -- the size of marbles and discs more than a half inch long, weather.com reported.

The islands also saw heavy rains and thunderstorms  that closed schools, flooded homes and led to sewage spills. Landslides, power outages and roads blocks by trees, boulders and mud were reported.

Some vacationers in the tropical paradise had their vacations dampened.

When heavy rains canceled flights out of Kauai after midnight on Tuesday, about 20 passengers were stuck at the airport.

The heavy rains were expected to subside by Saturday.

There were no reports of deaths or injuries due to the storm.

Burl Burlingame / staradvertiser.com

A section of a roof was blown off by a waterspout that came ashore in Enchanted Lake on Friday morning.

Nam Y. Huh / AP

Tasos Pantelidis searches through a home destroyed by a tornado in Marysville, Ind., March 4. Calm weather gave dazed residents of storm-wracked towns a respite on Sunday as they dug out from a chain of tornadoes that cut a swath of destruction from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, killing at least 39 people.

Slideshow: Early season tornado outbreak

Eric Thayer / Reuters

Severe storms and tornadoes tear through the midwest and southern states.

Launch slideshow

The search for tornado victims was wrapping up Sunday, but the cleanup was only beginning, especially along a 52-mile-long stretch in Indiana where the scene was best described as "total devastation."

With a light snow and cold temperatures adding to the misery in places like hard-hit Henryville, Indiana officials were able to announce that no one else was still reported missing in the state where 12 died. Kentucky was hardest hit, with 20 deaths.

-- Reported by NBC News, msnbc.com and news services

Related content: PhotoBlog posts from the storms

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Jim Young / Reuters

Jordan Youssef salvages a dresser drawer from the remains of her grandmother's house which was destroyed by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois, on March 1. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

Jim Young / Reuters

Sharon Johnson looks at her ring found among the destruction to her apartment caused by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois, on March 1. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

HARRISBURG, Illinois -- Residents of storm-tossed midwestern towns searched for photographs and mementos from their ruined homes on Thursday as the death toll from a line of tornado-producing storms rose to 13, while more storms bore down on the region.

The worst loss of life from the line of "super-cell" storms, which marched across the Midwest and produced 35 tornado reports from late Tuesday through Wednesday, was in Harrisburg, where six people died.

Jim Young / Reuters

Ida Evans looks through the rubble for her parents' belongings which were blown across the street by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois, on March 1. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

A powerful tornado tore a path across the city's southern edge, where a residential neighborhood and a shopping district were flattened and virtually unrecognizable.

Power company crews were out on Thursday restoring electricity, and several residents sifted through rubble for something to salvage. Occasionally, a chain-saw roared to life, breaking the quiet.

Read the full story.

-- Reuters

Jim Young / Reuters

Ed Mellton looks over the remains of a rental house he owned, which was destroyed by a tornado in Harrisburg, Illinois, on March 1. Powerful storms that spawned tornadoes ripped through the U.S. Midwest on Wednesday, killing at least 12 people, including six in Illinois who were crushed when a house was lifted up and fell on them, authorities said.

Whitney Curtis / Getty Images

Steve McDonald stands in the debris of his mother-in-law, Mary Osman's home. Osman was killed after a tornado touched down on Feb. 29 in Harrisburg, Ill.

Twisters roared through the nation's heartland in the early morning darkness Wednesday tearing through small towns in Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and Missouri. 

In Harrisburg, Ill., a town of 9,000, residents sorted through piles of debris and remembered their dead while the winds still howled around them.

Not long after the storm, Darrell Osman raced to his mother's home, arriving just in time to speak to her before she was taken to a hospital with a head injury, a severe cut to her neck and a broken arm and leg.

"She was conscious. I wouldn't say she was coherent. There were more mumbles than anything," he said. "She knew we were there."

Mary Osman died a short time later.

-- The Associated Press

Related Posts:

• Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9
• PhotoBlog: Storm's path of destruction crosses several Midwest states

Laurie Skrivan / St. Louis Post-Dispatch via Zuma Press

One of the owner's of Dream Baskets, a gourmet food eatery located off Route 45, look out the exposed north side of the restaurant, which was destroyed by a tornado on Feb. 29 in Harrisburg, Ill.

Sarah Conard / Reuters

Carissa Westfall helps salvage products from Nature's Sunshine Health Foods store in Branson, Missouri, on Feb. 29.

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Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Rob Turpen of Hollister, Mo., holds his son Izaiha, 2, while his son Patrick, 3, climbs over debris at a friend's storm-damaged house just east of Branson, Mo., Wednesday. A powerful storm system lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to a small town in Kansas.

Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Windows are blown out of a Hilton hotel in downtown Branson, Mo., Wednesday.

Stephen Lance Dennee / AP

Julie Shaw picks up jewelry of Dorothy Hill in Harrisburg, Ill., after an early morning tornado struck the small town in southern Illinois on Wednesday. Hill was injured and take to the hospital. At least six people died in Harrisburg in the pre-dawn tornado.

Timothy D. Easley / AP

Workers with National Distributors Leasing examine damage to semi trailers following a tornado that went through the area Wednesday in Hodgenville, Ky. Waves of strong storms ripped roofs off homes, apartment buildings and a bank and destroyed several buildings in north-central Kentucky. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Patti Longmire / AP

Mary Curtsinger looks over the devastation at her friend's home after severe weather passed Hodgenville, Ky. on Wednesday. Waves of strong storms ripped roofs off homes, apartment buildings and a bank and destroyed several buildings in north-central Kentucky.

The full story on msnbc.com reports that at least nine people were killed as tornadoes crossed the Midwest:

John Moore, owner of the damaged Cakes-n-Creams '50s Diner in Branson, Mo., said the apparent twister appeared to "jump side to side" as it moved down the entertainment district, right through the convention center, across a lake and into a housing division.

"The theater next to me kind of exploded. It went everywhere. The hotels on the two sides of me lost their roofs. Power lines are down. Windows are blown out," Moore said. "There's major, major destruction. There has to be millions dollars of damage all down the strip.

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A powerful storm system has killed at least 9 people across the Midwest, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to a small town in Kansas.

Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Residents walk amid downed power lines in Branson, Mo, Wednesday, Feb. 29.

The storm is expected to progress through the Tennessee Valley and southern Appalachians through Wednesday evening.

Orlin Wagner / AP

Furniture and walls are all that remain after severe storms destroyed several homes and businesses in Harveyville, Kan., on Feb. 29.

Several deaths occurred in Harrisburg, Ill., after the storm destroyed a few dozen homes, according to a local TV station. A hospital official later confirmed the deaths.

Orlin Wagner / AP

Residents gather the morning after severe storms destroyed several homes and businesses in Harveyville, Kan., Wednesday, Feb. 29.

Another death and an additional 13 people were injured at a mobile home park in rural southwest Missouri.

Mark Schiefelbein / AP

Sherry Cousins and her brother Bruce Wallace of Hollister, Mo., sit in the wreckage of their secondhand store in Branson, Mo., on Feb. 29.

Read more in our full story. 

Photos by Dave Martin / AP

Erin Reid, left, gets a hug from Linda Martin outside the Center Point Elementary School in Center Point, Ala., Jan. 24, 2012. The school was heavily damaged by a tornado on Monday. Erin and Linda are second grade teachers at the school.

A group of media, law enforcement officers, teachers and government officials walk through the lobby of the heavily damaged school.

WPMI-TV reports: Authorities say Center Point Elementary School was more than 80 percent damaged during Monday's tornado and will be bulldozed. The school was built in 2003, and an addition was built in 2007. Officials expect that the elementary will be rebuilt.

Msnbc.com reports: Residents in towns just outside Birmingham, Ala., on Tuesday were sifting through the debris from 500 homes and 50 businesses either destroyed or damaged by storms that spawned three twisters early Monday. Two people died and around 100 were treated for injuries.

The National Weather Service confirmed that three tornadoes touched down early Monday. Two in Tuscaloosa County did little damage. But the one that touched down in Jefferson County was on the ground nearly two hours starting at 2:30 a.m. Monday and ripped through hundreds of properties, including the public elementary school in Center Point, which was destroyed.

Second grade teacher Monica Finley cries after retrieving personal items on Tuesday.

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Butch Dill / AP

Residents walk around through the debris of their neighborhood after a severe storm ripped through the Trussville, Ala., area in the early hours of Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. Jefferson County sheriff's spokesman Randy Christian said the storm produced a possible tornado that moved across northern Jefferson County around 3:30 a.m., causing damage in Oak Grove, Graysville, Fultondale, Center Point, Clay and Trussville.

Marvin Gentry / Reuters

A workman clears trees from houses in the Paradise Valley area of Clay Chalkville, Alabama, after the neighborhood was hit by tornadoes early January 23, 2012.

From the full story about possible tornados that tore through Alabama:

"We have major, major damage," said Bob Ammons, another Jefferson County EMA official, speaking of Center Point, Trussville and some unincorporated areas of the county.

"Some roads are impassable, there are a number of county roads where you have either debris down, trees down, damage from homes," added Yasamie Richardsond, a spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

In Clanton, about 50 miles south of Birmingham, rescuers were responding to reports of a trailer turned over with people trapped, City Clerk Debbie Orange said.

 Follow @msnbc_pictures

Ben Earp / The Star via AP

Hannah Martin,15, hands the just-rescued puppy Brownie to North Carolina Gov. Bev Purdue Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 after the puppy was rescued from the rubble of a mobile home destroyed by a EF2 tornado in Ellenboro, N.C. on Wednesday.

Is tornado season starting early this year?

AP reports: ELLENBORO, N.C. (AP) - Weather officials confirm there was a tornado in the storm system that swept through parts of western North Carolina this week, flinging mobile homes into valleys, damaging dozens of buildings and injuring nearly 20 people.

The storm system struck Rutherford and Burke counties on Wednesday, as a cold front moved through the western Carolinas. A National Weather Service survey team reported the system produced a tornado of EF2 strength, with winds of roughly 115 miles an hour.

Ben Earp / The Star via AP

Volunteers and family help clean up Thursday, Jan. 12, 2012 after a EF2 tornado destroyed several homes in Ellenboro, N.C. Wednesday.

Related: First Tornado of 2012 Confirmed in Texas

Richard Carson / Reuters

This vehicle was among the dozens stranded in high water across Houston on Monday.

Torrential rain, flooding that cut off highways and even suspected tornadoes gave the Houston area major weather headaches on Monday.

The Mall of the Mainland in Texas City had to close after damage from a suspected twister Monday afternoon. It was unclear if there were any injuries.

"The structural integrity of the building has been compromised," Texas City Fire Chief Joe Gorman was quoted by the Houston Chronicle as saying.

Several homes closer to Houston were damaged by another suspected twister.

"All the doors in the house were trying to open and shut. It sounded like a train going through, so we hid in the closet," Beverly Moore was quoted by KPRC TV as saying. "It was definitely a tornado. We hid for about 15 minutes."

Nick de la Torre / Houston Chronicle via AP

This intersection in Houston, at Buffalo Speedway and Richmond Avenue, saw plenty of heavy rain Monday.

The deluge from the system closed down a stretch of Texas State Highway 288 for most of the day. A dozen other freeway intersections in the Houston area also saw flooding and rainfall of more than four inches in just a few hours.

"Between 9 a.m. and about noon today the Houston police department had 51 active flood locations with flooding reports and that’s all over the city in city streets,” the Chronicle quoted city spokesman Michael Walter as saying.

The suburb of Sugar Land got more than six inches of rain.

The storm cut power to nearly 20,000 utility customers at its peak, and officials reported numerous water rescues of people stranded in homes or cars.

Houston, like most of Texas, has seen drought conditions for most of the last year and Monday's storm isn't expect to help much on its own. Any sustained recovery will require a long stretch of rain, forecasters say.

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J Pat Carter / AP

A Sunrise, Fla. firefighter checks a home on Wednesday, Oct. 19 after the area was hit by a possible tornado.

J Pat Carter / AP

Barb McKie inspects damage to her Sunrise, Fla. home on Wednesday, Oct. 19 after a possible tornado damaged more than two dozen houses in the area.

A possible tornado tore through a Sunrise, Fla. neighborhood on Tuesday night. Over a dozen homes were left with serious damage, including torn off roofs and uprooted trees. The 2 mile-long trail of damage shows all the signs of a tornado.

AP reports:

"The tornado just went right through, right through the house. It's basically knocked down everywhere," said Alec Katz. "People's fences are on top of roofs, everything, It's crazy."

For the complete story: Homes damaged as likely tornado hits Florida

J Pat Carter / AP

The roof of a Sunrise, Fla. home is missing after a possible tornado damaged more than two dozen houses in the area on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011.

J Pat Carter / AP

Yom-Tov Assidon, left, is comforted by Sunrise, Fla. Mayor Michael Ryan on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, after the two toured Assidon's storm damaged home. Assidon and his wife were in the house when a possible tornado hit. His wife, just out of the hospital after surgery, had her stitches torn open.

J Pat Carter / AP

Ivan Burrows talks on his phone on Wednesday, Oct. 19, telling callers about the possible tornado that hit his Sunrise, Fla. home.