The tornado that hit southwest Lawrence left devastation, debris and some moments that many residents will never forget.

Here are accounts of what some experienced Thursday evening:

• Hearing the tornado warning and realizing his house near 24th Street and Kasold Drive didn’t have a basement, Sam Kanj, 28, and his brother, Walid, 26, ran to their car and headed for Strong Hall on the Kansas University campus.

“When we turned on 23rd Street, the tornado was right behind us,” Sam Kanj said, speaking on a cell phone from the basement of Strong Hall.

“There was tons and tons of debris — wood and roofing material,” he said. “It seemed to be mostly white in color. We were very shaken by this.

“You see this on TV and you go, ‘OK, cool,’ but when you see it in person, you see how destructive it really is.”

Jim Walmesley, right, leaves Aberdeen Apartments & Townhomes in southwest Lawrence with a duffle bag full of clothes.

• Chris Pilch, 4220 W. 24th St.

“It rained and rained and then it just stopped,” said Pilch, a registered nurse. “Two minutes later … we were standing out … all of a sudden it hit here and you could see debris flying up. It jumped Clinton Parkway, with arcing wires, and took out that neighborhood.”

“The whole neighborhood is covered with insulation from the tops of houses.”

One nearby cul-de-sac was so littered with white insulation that it appeared almost as if a winter snow had fallen.

“It lasted two minutes and then it was quiet,” Pilch said.

• Carl Jansen, 4761 Ranch Court.

Jansen, a software engineer, had just awakened from a nap and gone to the bathroom.

He pulled a mattress in on top of himself in the shower and listened as the roof over him was ripped away.

“It only lasted 30 seconds,” he said. “I could just hear cracking from the roof being taken off.”

He didn’t know where he would spend the night, perhaps with a friend in Topeka.

“I’m not sure what I’ll do next,” he said. “It’s kind of weird. I’m just kind of in a daze right now.”

• Randy Lewis, 2229 Rodeo Drive.

The backside of the roof over his house was torn off, windows were blown out and a piece of wood struck the outside of the house with such force that Sheetrock inside was cracked inward.

A friend, Daryl Richardson, and Lewis’ wife, Sue, were with him in the basement.

“Daryl saw it coming. We watched it. It was scary as hell,” Lewis said. The crack in the wall “was like somebody threw a tomahawk.”

• Sue Lewis, 2229 Rodeo Drive.

“I’ve lived in Kansas 56 years and never seen one (tornado). Now all the sudden here it is.”

But she said she was grateful for the response of her neighbors.

“The first thing after, everybody came out and started checking on everybody. The best in people came out, too,” she said.

• Barbara and Richard Comer, 4608 Wimbledon Drive.

Winds ripped support rails from their front porch, leaving a roof overhang in danger of collapsing until neighbors shored it up.

“We were in the basement. It sounded like a real loud whistle. Hurt your ears,” Barbara said. “Didn’t last long.”

Though the house sustained a fair amount of damage, “It took a lot of praying for us to end up with this much,” she said. “It’s traumatizing, you know. We’re lucky, though. We’re still here.”

• Unal Eren, a KU student.

Eren watched from his girlfriend’s house on Adams Avenue as the tornado hit nearby Ranch Way.

“It just missed us,” he said. “I went looking out the window and you could see the whole thing. I went away from the window.”

But for many people the tornado only slightly disturbed an otherwise normal evening.

Jeremy Anderson, a Pizza Hut delivery driver, said the storm caused a little excitement but only a brief lull in his night’s job activities as workers stayed indoors to avoid the storm.

“Only about 30 minutes,” he said.

¢ 6News video: Twisters damage several homes¢ 6News video: Home video shows funnel coming from wall cloud¢ 6News video: While many homes were damaged, no serious injuries¢ 6News video: The tornado was estimated at a mile wide at one point¢ Damage, but none dead¢ Apartment complex at center of storm¢ Eyewitnesses describe wrath of tornado¢ ’81 twister hit city’s S.W. side¢ Residents bewildered after narrow escape¢ Officials ask onlookers to stay away¢ Twisters roll across state, but injuries at a minimum¢ Help available for those left homeless by storm¢ Tornado touches down in southwest Lawrence¢Local forecast¢Stories, video, photos from Sunday’s tornadoes