Pratt ? Artie Patrick knows what saved his family’s life when a tornado ripped his home open Tuesday night.

“That basement,” Patrick said, pointing to the spot where he hid with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. “We could hear the house moving above us. Then we saw the sky and felt the hail. But no one got hurt.”

Chris Eck walks away from the remains of his mobile home near Pratt. Eck's home was destroyed by a tornado late Tuesday night. A band of tornadoes cut through several counties in southwestern and central Kansas Tuesday evening. Northeast Kansas was struck Wednesday night, but no serious injuries were reported.

Tornadoes that swept through Pratt County on Tuesday damaged 71 homes, according to Kansas Emergency Management. Of those, 14 were destroyed, 21 had major damage, and 36 had minor damage.

There were only a few minor injuries.

Emergency officials who assessed the damage Wednesday attributed the lack of injury to wise residents taking to their basements as soon as emergency sirens rang out.

“Our residents handled this the right way,” said Mark McManaman, head of emergency services in Pratt County.

That also was the case in Cullison, a town of 100 eight miles east of Pratt with no working tornado sirens. Residents took cover as firefighters drove fire engines with lights and sirens through the town.

“When we do that, everybody around here knows what to do,” said Cullison Fire Chief Rusty Owens. “Those who didn’t have a basement found somebody who did.”

The twister that struck there damaged six houses, including Owens’. It also leveled the fire station, burying two of the city’s four fire engines in cinderblocks.

A second tornado tore limbs from trees and toppled power lines in west Pratt before seriously damaging homes southeast of the city.

Those were two of nearly 20 tornadoes that touched down Tuesday in Kansas. As many as 15 touched down between Windthorst and Pratt.

Two tornadoes touched down near Cunningham late Tuesday night, and another was reported four miles west of Kingman.

Wednesday night, storms also hit eastern Kansas, mostly in Jefferson and Leavenworth counties. Some structural damage was reported, but no major injuries.