By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

PALCO -- Everett McKenna never saw the tornado that swept through his farmyard.

But as he was driving out of the yard to take a look around, a bale feeder that passed his pickup was a sure sign something was amiss.

By the time it was finished, McKenna had debris scattered over 80 or 90 acres of ground.

"It took my big Quonset," he said this morning. "It tore up my feed yard stuff."

There were other sheds that were destroyed by the tornado that swept through his farmyard about 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the first of two giant storms that swept through Rooks County.

McKenna's farm wasn't the only one damaged. He said a neighbor, Georgia Wanker, about a mile east of him lost all of the outbuildings at her farm.

"If you were here, you'd see a lot of damage," she said this morning. Her home, however, only lost some shingles.

There were reports of damage elsewhere in the county, including a home in Woodston to the east of Stockton. Wanker said another neighbor of hers had damage as well.

Rooks County residents faced a series of storms Thursday evening, with at least two supercells -- resembling space ships -- sweeping through the county. The second one came just as darkness started falling.

In succession, tornado sirens were sounded in Rooks County communities from west to east.

Power poles were toppled by the storm as it moved east. Wanker, in fact, still was waiting for power to be restored this morning.

Neither McKenna nor Wanker saw the tornado that caused massive damage.

"I didn't see it coming," Wanker said this morning. "But I saw it when it got here. There's a big mess out here. There's no electricity."

Wanker said she never went to the basement.

McKenna was watching the sky as well.

"We were out in the yard watching it," he said of the storm.

And when nothing could be seen, he and his hired hand got in the pickup to take a look around the area.

"Stuff started passing us," he said of driving out the driveway.

That stuff included the likes of a steel round bale feeder.

As well, McKenna said he saw his stock trailer "stand up in the air and flip over two or three times."

As it hit, a "layer of clouds up high were going south," McKenna said. "The lower layer of clouds was going north.

"As far as seeing a tail come down, no."

"I didn't see it until it got here," Wanker said.

In fact, she didn't realize it was a tornado, until after she saw what had happened to the buildings in her yard.

There's also damage to McKenna's feedlot, as debris was thrown through corrals made out of oil field pipe.

"All my creep feeders are pretty well toast," he said.

But he thinks his machinery might have dodged the bullet, primarily because of the way the Quonset collapsed.

"As far as machinery, we're in good shape if we can get it out of there," he said. Inside the building were tractors, a combine and a swather.

The building, McKenna said, likely will cost $50,000 to $60,000 to be replaced.

"It's beyond repair," he said.