Desperately seeking safety: Tornado tears Wisteria Lane to shreds

The stars of hit TV show Desperate Housewives are set to face their biggest disaster yet after Wisteria Lane is wiped out by a massive tornado.

In one of the most dramatic plotlines to date, the surburban street is torn to shreds by a freak storm.

Instead of the usually picture-perfect facades and immaculate gardens, the street's residents are confronted by overturned cars, splintered trees and wrecked furniture.

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Some houses have been reduced to rubble and with Wisteria Lane officially a disaster zone, producers have warned that some of the cast of the hit show will not survive.

It seems unlikely, however, that the series' stars Teri Hatcher, Felicity Huffman, Marcia Cross and Eva Longoria have anything to fear.

American viewers have already seen the dramatic episode - but will have to wait until January 6 to find out who has weathered the storm.

"Causing all sorts of havoc, that's when I'm at my happiest," series creator Marc Cherry said.

"With the exception of the four women, I don't know that anyone can ever take their job completely for granted.

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"Good heavens, I killed off Mary Alice in the pilot, Mrs Huber in episode seven of the first season. My attitude is, that's life. People come and go.

"Very often, if you're just trying to show the lives of ordinary women and trying to make the small events of their lives interesting or big, you get in trouble. Sometimes you can overwrite, sometimes people get too silly.

"A natural disaster provides a perfect backdrop so that the stakes are high for everyone on every single level."

However, even Marc had some qualms when he saw the state of the set.

"I thought, "Oh, my God, what have we done?' It really kind of hurt my heart a little bit to see my street so banged up," he said.

The crew had the usual nine days to film the episode - and only an extra $500,000 on top of the normal $2 million budget.

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But they were helped by the unlikely intervention of Indiana Jones.

Stephen Spielberg had just finished with the set of for the fourth instalment of the film - and the crew were able to salvage the debris to create their disaster zone.