Kansas City, Mo. ? Tornadoes damaged or destroyed five homes in rural Neosho County, Kan., Thursday evening, and another storm system prompted officials at Kansas City International Airport to evacuate nearly 2,000 people from its terminals.

Southeast Kansas appeared to get the worst of the storms, which mostly produced large hail and heavy rain. Neosho County emergency coordinator Max Gough said multiple tornadoes touched down near Galesburg, about seven miles northwest of Parsons.

Besides the five farmhouses — three of which were destroyed — several outbuildings were damaged in the storm, and some livestock likely were killed, he said.

The weather service in Wichita said there were reports of some small “rope” tornadoes and a few larger ones in southeast Kansas.

Meteorologist Bruce Wightman in Wichita said such storm systems usually start coming through about two or three weeks earlier.

He said the next chance for thunderstorms in Kansas will be Sunday night into Monday.

Earlier Thursday, tornado sirens wailed across the northern part of the metro Kansas City area, and unofficial reports had a twister touching down near Weston, Mo. But the National Weather Service office in Pleasant Hill said that tornado had not been confirmed, and there didn’t appear to be any damage in the area.

Joe McBride, a spokesman for Kansas City International Airport, said the Federal Aviation Administration ordered the airport’s control tower closed around 5:10 p.m. after tornado warnings were issued in the nearby Weston area.

Also because of those warnings, airport officials ushered some 2,000 people from the terminals and into tunnels leading to the parking garages, he said. The evacuation lasted about 40 minutes.