BRANSON, Mo. — A powerful storm system that produced multiple reports of tornadoes lashed the Midwest early today, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson and laying waste to small towns in Illinois and Kansas.

At least 13 people were killed.

An apparent twister rolled through Branson just before 1 a.m. and seemed to hopscotch up the city’s main road, ripping roofs off hotels and damaging some of the city’s famed music theaters dangerously close to the start of the heavy tourism season.

More than 30 people were reported hurt, mostly with cuts and bruises.

At least 10 people were killed in the Southern Illinois town of Harrisburg after a storm leveled much of the community of 9,000 people.

In Missouri, one person was killed in a trailer park in the town of Buffalo, and at least three people were critically injured in the small eastern Kansas town of Harveyville.

The tornadoes were spawned by a powerful storm system that blew down from the Rockies on Tuesday and was headed across the Ohio and Tennessee River valleys toward the Mid-Atlantic region.