One Dead In Wisconsin Twister

A tornado killed one person and damaged dozens of homes as it roared through this southern Wisconsin city late Thursday.

At least eight other people were hospitalized as the severe storms blasted their way across the central and southern parts of the state, authorities said.

"The sky just exploded. It was debris everywhere," said David Murray, 43, who captured the Stoughton tornado on his camera phone. "When it went across the road and it hit all the houses over there ... it was something you can't explain. It just exploded."

"I came out and you could see the funnel very clearly heading away from us, and then that funnel went up and actually another tornado touched down right next to it," Stoughton resident Dick Cowan told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Hannah Storm. "So there were actually two tornadoes that we saw.

"I didn't realize the extent of it until I saw my neighbor's house, which was basically leveled to the ground. And my neighbors and I went to survey the area, and see if we could locate everybody and make a count for everybody," Cowan said. "One of our neighbors didn't make it out."

State Emergency Management spokeswoman Lori Getter said one person died in the tornado and others were hospitalized; she had no further information about the victims. The tornado destroyed 15 homes, and 35 others had moderate to severe damage, she said.

Getter said a natural gas leak caused the evacuation of about 200 residents.

Emergency workers say it is still too early to tell if everyone is accounted for and far too early to put any, even preliminary, estimate on the damage, reports James Lynch of CBS affiliate WDJT-TV.

The storms also damaged homes in Viola, about 70 miles northwest of Madison. Getter said three people there were treated for injuries and about 70 to 80 homes were damaged.

"There's houses half gone. All the trees in town are gone," said Bill Bender, owner of the Viola Quick Stop. "There was stuff flying by the building, like big chunks."

Storm debris traveled eastward in clouds, depositing papers, shingles and other materials in the Milwaukee area, some 60 miles from Stoughton.

Murray described seeing a smashed truck upside down in the middle of a wrecked house, and debris, including an engine block, strewn across the nearby Stoughton Country Club.

As the storm approached, golfers had started coming off the course, and about 40 people huddled in the club's basement and waited, said the club's executive chef, Lenny Peaslee.

The storm peeled the roof back like the lid of a box, he said.

"We heard the rumble, rumble, then crash, boom, bang," Peaslee said. "Insulation as far you can see. It nailed us ... the course is pretty much a mess. There's trees down everywhere you look."