ST. LOUIS — The call came late Friday to the Rev. Derrick Perkins: Three people were trapped in the Centennial Christian Church in St. Louis after a tornado had toppled part of its steeple, leaving it in dusty piles of bricks and stones.

A signal from one person’s cellphone helped Perkins and emergency workers find those trapped inside. But one of the people, a beloved longtime ministry leader, was killed, Perkins said.

“I was in disbelief — heartbroken,” he said, holding back tears. “Not only for the church but for the entire community.”

The grief and damage there is just a fraction of the devastation from several tornadoes that have ripped across the nation since late Friday, killing at least 27 people in Missouri, Kentucky and Virginia, and injuring dozens more.

Mayor Cara Spencer o

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