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PICHER — The deadliest outbreak of tornadoes in Oklahoma since 1999 killed six people, including an infant, in Picher on Saturday, authorities said.

The death toll is not expected to rise because all missing people have been accounted for, Picher Fire Chief Jeff Reeves and Gov. Brad Henry said this afternoon. Rescue workers and officials had earlier said the death toll was likely to rise.

The governor said the search and rescue phase of the disaster is over and it now is a cleanup operation.

Henry took an aerial tour in an Oklahoma National Guard helicopter and this afternoon is taking a ground tour.

He said disaster is widespread, a wide swath of damage through Ottawa County, including Picher, Peoria and Quapah. The damage is sometimes half a mile wide, he said.

Henry declared a state of emergency in Ottawa County late Saturday night and is still looking into the situation in other counties, he said. The state of emergency is the first step in requesting federal disaster aid. Henry said he expects to speak with President Bush later today.

Damage assessment will begin Monday.

"We will get through this pulling together and working together as Oklahomans, making sure our neighbors have what they need,” Henry said. “We will overcome this adversity just like we always do."

Rescue workers and cadaver dogs searched through rubble today looking for bodies, but none were found and no one is considered missing.

Several residents told authorities they had no warning before the tornado, which destroyed the south end of the city, Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. George Brown said.

“We could see the fingers of this lady down in the ruble just sticking out,” said Ed Keheley, 65, who helped rescue a woman unhurt from a bathtub buried in debris. “People were just wandering up and down the streets. Some had blood on them, some were dazed.”

Brown said the infant died at a Tulsa hospital and five adults have been found dead in Picher. Identifying those killed could take up to a week, Brown said.

At least 150 people — from scratches to more serious problems — were injured in the Picher tornado, said Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the state Emergency Management Department.

Brown said more than 30 people were taken to Integris Baptist Hospital in nearby Miami. Of those, more than 20 were treated and released.

The Picher tornado is the deadliest in Oklahoma since the May 3, 1999, tornado outbreak that killed 44 people in Oklahoma.

Divers spent Sunday searching a three-acre sewer lagoon for bodies and automobiles. The lagoon is approximately 3 to 4 feet deep, but rescue workers said the muddy bottom was several feet deep.

A Wagoner County search and rescue worker earlier said a body was found in a tree near the lagoon and another body was found on the lagoon bank.

Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Tulsa, said he would work with Henry to get the area declared a federal disaster area.

“I was down in Moore, Oklahoma, about 9 years ago and it was nothing like this,” Inhofe said. “I've never seen anything like this.”

Storms deadly in South
At least 21 people have been killed in Oklahoma, Missouri and Georgia.

The same storm system that ravaged Picher, killed at least 14 in southwest Missouri, according to the State Emergency Management Agency. Ten of the dead were killed when a twister struck near Seneca, about 20 miles southeast of Picher, near the Oklahoma border.

On Sunday, storms rumbled across Georgia, killing at least one person in Dublin, about a 121 miles southeast of Atlanta, authorities said. Weather officials had not yet confirmed whether the storms produced any tornadoes.

In Oklahoma, National Weather Service teams have been sent out to do assessments in Picher, Pittsburg and Latimer counties, and Crawford County in Arkansas, said Steve Amburn, meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The teams will determine how many tornadoes the storm formed.

By radar, the weather service has counted at least five tornadic supercells, he said. Tornadoes could have touched down multiple times with each. At least five tornadoes in all touched down Saturday in northern and eastern Oklahoma, officials said.

It appears the Picher tornado was at least an EF-3, according to preliminary reports from National Weather Service crews, Amburn said.

Picher damage extensive
On the outskirts of Picher, tin was bent around trees like wrappers on gum. Trees were uprooted, and a line of utility poles bent toward the ground.

The National Weather Service sent out a tornado warning at 5:26 p.m., 13 minutes before the tornado hit Picher, said David Jankowski, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Tulsa. Tornado sirens warned residents to take shelter.

Several residents reported they did not get any warning, Brown and Ooten said.

Frank Geasland, Ottawa County's emergency manager, said evidence of storm damage could be seen in a 15-mile path through the county.

The entire city of Picher is still without power, Ooten said. Authorities from Wagoner, Delaware, Washington and Mayes counties are assisting local officials with search and rescue missions.

Picher is a former lead and zinc mining community that is now the center of the Tar Creek Superfund site. The town's population has dwindled from a peak of roughly 20,000 to about 800 people.

A federally funded buyout is underway to relocate residents from the Tar Creek area, which became one of the worst environmental disaster areas in the country because of pollution from the mining.

Inhofe said he’s concerned for residents whose homes had not been assessed. Those who have already had their homes assessed will get that value, Inhofe said, adding the tornado maybe the final nail in the Picher coffin.

“All that we have been through, the buyouts, fights with the EPA, the ice storm, I don’t know if we can take anymore,” said John Sparkman, Picher Housing Authority director.

Most of the brick homes in the south side of the Picher Housing Authority were flattened, leaving piles of brick and tin wrapped around trees.

Most of the houses were vacant because they were sitting in an area classified by a federal study likely to cave in, he said.

Betty Lawson, 48, of Quapaw is helping this morning salvage items from the home of her son, Mike Richardson, 31.

The home was mostly destroyed but for his daughters room were a bit of dirt was on a crib, but the furniture and toys were spared, Richardson said, adding his family wasn’t home at the time of the storm.

The family’s two dogs, which were home during the tornado, survived, Richardson said.

It's hard for a mother to protect her son from things like this, Lawson said.

“Even though everyone's OK, I'm still very emotional,” she said. “I’m just glad we made it through.”

Only residents of the area are being admitted to the disaster area, Brown said. Residents needing relief can go to First Christian Church in Miami and Baptist Church in Commerce.

The best way for Oklahomans to provide assistant is to give money to the disaster relief agency of their choice.

The American Red Cross has responded to the scene to provide relief for those affected by the storm.

Less damage elsewhere
The storm passed through Haywood, southwest of McAlester, late Saturday afternoon, said Trent Myers, director of emergency management in Pittsburg County.

Myers said a tornado formed over Haywood and damaged houses there but lifted before reaching McAlester, about five miles away. Myers said no injuries have been reported there.

The tornado that touched down in Haywood was at least an EF-2, Amburn said.

Several houses were destroyed and pickup trucks were flipped over, their cabs crushed, he said. A clean-up effort was underway Sunday morning.

“Everybody’s just trying to pick up the pieces,” he said.

Video shown on Oklahoma City television stations showed at least two houses destroyed and several more with significant damage near Haywood. At a glass plant southwest of McAlester, the storm apparently picked up a trailer and slammed it on top of garbage bins.

The weather service's Storm Prediction Center also reported tornadoes near Crowder in Pittsburg County and Clayton in Pushmataha County. No injuries were reported.

The Tulsa weather service office also says storm spotters tracked a “very dangerous” tornado near Commerce, in Ottawa County near the Missouri state line. Power had been restored Sunday morning to the 3,000 Public Service Co. of Oklahoma customers in the Tulsa area, said spokeswoman Andrea Chancellor. The outage lasted from about 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., she said.

Contributing: The Associated Press.