The top floor of the house is collapsed. A car is trapped under debris in the garage, while a van is tipped on its side in the driveway. Trees are split, uprooted and scattered all around, intermixed with a variety of other debris.
But this scene was not the norm in Story County Saturday night, and officials say most residents can breathe a sigh of relief.
"We got lucky only because the tornadoes touched down in sparsely populated areas," said John Ross, of Story County Emergency Management Agency, adding that if the tornadoes took a different path through towns, the scene would be much different.
Livingston said his family - wife Linda and children Kristin, 11, and David, 8 - are fine, according to a story on the Iowa State Daily Web site.
"We were in an interior room in the basement. We had literally just pulled the door close to the room when it hit. It was that close," he said.
Livingston and his family are staying with his parents in Ames.
The funnel clouds and tornadoes that touched down early Saturday evening were spawned from the same storm system that caused heavy damage in Woodward and killed one person in Stratford.
In Story County, however, the average report was of minimal damage and no injuries.
Ross said the first report of a tornado occurred at about 5 p.m. one mile west of Kelley. A tornado touchdown was then reported on the Story County-Boone County line, with further touchdowns in Ames and Gilbert and near Story City and Roland.
"It appears we did have a tornado touch down in Ames," said Susan Gwiasda, public relations officer for the city, early in the evening. "We did receive a lot of reports of debris; there was some downed power lines."
Gwiasda said the damage reported in Ames was concentrated in the "state streets" area, near Kansas Drive and Ontario Street, and farther north. A garage being destroyed, power lines down and windows broken were some of the reports coming in.
Power was successfully rerouted to prevent power loss to any part of the city.
"It had the potential to be so much worse. I think we're very fortunate," Gwiasda said.
Debris was also reported on the Union pacific railroad tracks, Gwiasda said, and the train company was notified. The rail line was shut down temporarily until debris could be completely cleared.
Gwiasda said there were multiple reports of funnel clouds and several reports of touchdowns, but it was unknown Saturday night exactly how many tornadoes may have moved through the area.
"It's tough because so many people have seen (tornadoes), we don't know if they're talking about the same ones," she said.
She said pictures and reports the Ames Police Department tracked confirmed at least three funnel clouds and one touchdown, but there may have been more.
Ross said the tornado that moved through northwest Ames also damaged homes and trees in the Deer Run Lane area.
Homes in east Gilbert were damaged by a tornado touchdown there, and as of 8:30 p.m., power was still out in the east half of Gilbert.
Ross said the storm system then moved near Story City, but "spared" that town.
"A couple of (mobile) homes were moved from their foundations," he said, with some roof damage as the only other damage reported.
There were no reports of damage from a final touchdown near Roland, but Ross said damage in rural areas would not be known until today.
"We can't see it all until daylight," he said.
Ross said the storm left Story County at approximately 5:30 p.m. The National Weather Service will start damage assessment and rating the tornadoes today.
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can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 353, or cweishaar@amestrib.com.
