"I wish my neighbor would come get his garage," one man said wryly as he sorted through debris in his back yard.

His neighbor's garage was picked up by a tornado Saturday night and deposited in his yard on top of a pool, the man said.

Ipava's streets were filled Sunday with people clearing large tree branches and parts of houses.

The tornado cut through the village of about 500 at 8:37 p.m. Saturday, destroying the firehouse and damaging the majority of the homes in town.

Fire Chief Chris Schisler said he was listening to a radio at home Saturday evening and decided to come to the fire station in case help was needed.

Three other volunteer firefighters joined him at the station, Schisler said.

About 8:30 p.m., the firefighters began to fear the approaching twister would hit the station, so they started moving equipment, Schisler said.

"We got one truck out," he said. "We were getting ready to pull another one out and one of the other guys came around and said, 'It's here.' "

The men took cover quickly in the only place they could find in the station - a utility closet. Schisler said they heard "a load roar" around them. When they left the closet, much of the concrete-block fire station stood in a pile around them. The roof of the building sat on a fire truck.

Firefighters went door to door after the storm and were relieved to find no one was injured, Schisler said.

But no house was untouched. Every tall tree either had its top blown off or was split into pieces. Several garages were collapsed onto the cars inside them, with the roofs gone. Pink chunks of insulation were scattered all over the streets, along with pieces of broken glass and boards.

Ipava resident Daryl Hollenback said he and his family took cover in their basement. All the windows in the home were closed and locked, he said, but the powerful wind "sucked the curtains out of the cracks of the windows."

The tornado came close to the ground, Schisler said, but stayed aloft, which probably minimized damages.

"We cut it real close," Schisler said.

The National Weather Service in Lincoln confirmed the tornado in Ipava and a touchdown at 8:40 p.m. in Bernadotte. Astoria experienced wind damage, including broken tree limbs and downed power poles. In Smithfield, Cuba and Bryant, winds up to 60 mph were reported.

A spokesman for the Fulton County Emergency Services and Disaster Agency said a weather service representative will come to the county today to survey the damage.