MALDEN, Mo. -- As she sat on the front porch of her tornado-damaged Kimball Street home, Michelle Miller reflected on how thankful she was that her daughter listened Saturday night when she warned her bad weather was imminent.
"I got the alert on my phone that we were under a tornado warning," Miller said. "We were watching the DVR, so I turned to (the news)."
Weather personnel, Miller said, reported there was severe weather headed toward Malden.
Miller said she texted her daughter, Pattie Norwood, who lives with her family next door at 513 Kimball, for "her and the baby to come to our house.
"You don't ever think its going to actually hit you."
Norwood, Miller said, came to her home at 515 Kimball St.
"We were sitting in the living room," said Miller, who indicated she heard the wind whistling.
Miller said she didn't hear the freight train sound normally associated with tornadoes nor did she hear the city's storm sirens go off.
When the screen door began to vibrate, Miller said, she got up to close the inside door.
"At that point, it was on top of us," said Miller.
Due to the force, "I had to hold it (closed)," she said. "It just last seconds. At that point, I said it 'just went over us.'"
Miller said they had no idea the tornado actually had been on the ground until her daughter and husband, Daniel, looked out the back of the house.
"My daughter said her house was gone; my husband said our garage was gone," Miller said. "It's crazy how 10 seconds can change your whole life."
Miller said they had been prepared to take cover in a walk-in closet.
"I cleared the path and had a flashlight; we didn't have time to take cover," said Miller, who indicated she was thankful her daughter and grandchild were with them.
"Thankfully, she listened when I said bad weather was coming. She listened and came over," Miller said. "How many times do you hear it's coming, and you think you'll be OK."
Miller is grateful no one was hurt as they "we were all sitting in the living room" when the tornado hit.
In the tornado's aftermath, Miller said, they were told they had to leave the area Saturday night due to a gas leak, which "they couldn't stop from sparking."
Since that time, she said, the family has been staying with relatives.
"It's crazy, I was standing right there when it went through here," said Miller, pointing to her front door.
Miller then pointed across her once fenced-in yard to what is left of her daughter's house. Its roof and some of its walls are gone.
Miller said there also had been a workshop next to Norwood's home, but it now is scattered in the yard and "in my neighbor's house."
"That's my baby's swing," Miller said, looking up to where it hangs about 12 feet up what's left of a cedar tree.
As she surveyed her yard, Miller expressed concern about the glass littering it and wondered whether it could ever all be removed so her grandchildren could safely play in the yard again.
Across Miller's debris-littered yard, Dawn and Fred Dockins were surveying the damage to their modular home Monday morning.
"We just bought this property" at 509 Kimball, one of the areas hardest hit by the tornado, said Dawn Dockins. "We just left an hour ... when this happened."
Dockins and her husband had been working at the property, which appears to have been lifted off his foundation.
"He said the air felt tornadic" as they were driving home to the Farmington, Mo., area, she said.
At about Bernie, "you couldn't see two foot in front of you," said Dockins as she pointed across the street.
The woman living there, she said, had been standing at the window just before the tornado hit.
"She shut the closet door" as the tornado hit, said Dockins, who was thankful no one was hurt badly.
As the couple were surveying their damage, Mike Leasure, who lives up the street at 504 Kimball, stopped to talk.
"I was sitting in my living room, looking out the window, talking to my brother," Leasure said. "My brother was saying 75 mph winds were at Malden."
As he was looking out the window, Leasure said, he noticed it was getting dark.
"I couldn't see this house (the Dockins' house) from there," Leasure said. "Then, it hit.
" ... I just tackled my wife to the floor of the living room and let the glass fall around us. I came out (and) this is what my town looks like."
Leasure said his house is "still standing, but the back wall, roof and front door (are) gone. I totally lost my shed," he said.
Although damaged, Leasure said, he still is living in the house.
Most of the other houses in the 500 block of Kimball have damage, including a neighbor's house, which was missing the back side of its roof.
Windows were blown out of many of the homes, as well as some of the vehicles. Trees were splintered and uprooted.
Down the street at Randy and Dorothy Wright's 516 Kimball St. home, friends and family were picking up broken glass.
"We were sitting in the living room, watching TV ... paying attention to all the weather going on," said Dorothy Wright, who indicated the TV's signal was in and out. "We were just sitting there.
"The next thing he said we needed to get on the floor."
Dorothy Wright said her husband had felt the house left up and sit back down.
"Then we heard the windows break out," Dorothy Wright said. "We were sitting right there" as she pointed to the broken windows.
"We got down on the floor and waited for it. He said it didn't sound like a freight train. He said it sounded like a rock slide on 'Gunsmoke.'"
After the tornado passed, Dorothy Wright said, she and her husband came outside and began checking on their neighbors to make sure everyone was OK.
Emergency responders, she said, came by and checked on them to make sure they were OK and whether they needed anything.
Broken windows, missing shingles and uprooted trees were among the damage to the Wright property, she said.
"We've been staying right here," Dorothy Wright said. "We finally got electric (Monday) morning.
"We had been without electric for a couple of days."
Now, she said, it's time to start cleaning up.