About 30 tornadoes were reported from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico Thursday as unusually warm temperatures created instability not normally seen this late in the year, the national weather service reported.

More tornadoes could strike Friday as the storm system moves toward the east coast, weather service spokesman Pat Slattery said.

A hazardous weather warning was issued for much of the US eastern seaboard.

"It's high winds and it's generating tornadoes," Slattery said.

"That's a little unusual for this time of year... it takes heat and usually we don't have that kind of heat."

The town of Williamston, Michigan was particularly hard-hit as a tornado and high winds knocked down trees, power lines and killed two people whose house was blown into a pond.

"The storm blew the house off its foundation," said Sgt. Matthew Flint. "The whole house was blown into the pond."

A semi-truck driver was also hurt when the wind rolled his truck over as he

was driving on the highway, Flint said.

A third person was killed in Michigan when his mobile home was rolled off its foundation by a tornado that created a debris field several hundred feet long. A wood house nearby was also demolished.

A kiteboarder on Lake Washington in Seattle was dragged to his death by high winds which also forced the cancellation of some area ferry runs and knocked out power to nearly 300,000 homes, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported.

Two people were also killed early Thursday morning when a tornado struck in rural Missouri.

"It came down kind of like a lightning bolt," said Monroe county commissioner Glenn Turner. "The rest of the county damage was minimal."

The electricity went out shortly before the storm struck and a man went out to check on a woman in a mobile home. They were both thrown a great distance by the wind which carried the trailer a third of a mile from its foundation before it smashed to the ground.

An 11-year-old boy was struck by lightning in Chicago Thursday as a sudden storm swept through the windy city, dumping marble-sized hail on people heading home from work.

The boy was taken to hospital but is expected to recover, a fire department spokesman told AFP.

But the storm will bring welcome relief to southern states suffering from the worst drought in 113 years, said Douglas Le Comte, a drought specialist with the weather service.

"Some areas will see major relief but we don't expect to see (the drought) go away any time soon," Le Comte said in a telephone interview.

"There are critically low water levels with impacts on cities like Atlanta," he explained. "If they don't get rainfall relief they have only a three month supply of water for drinking in the reservoir."

Much of the Tennessee river valley is in an excessive or extreme drought condition and officials have imposed strict water restrictions, he said.

"The big rain deficits started in the beginning of the year and drought conditions started in spring and have been getting worse because of the excessive heat," he said.

"Because of the la Nina effect some areas will probably see return to dry conditions this fall and winter."

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