Woodward, Iowa ? Jackie and Bill Seeman sorted through the wreckage of their home Sunday to see what was spared by a tornado that killed one person and damaged dozens of homes across central Iowa.

They were delighted to find a few collectibles, but their car was covered with rubble and their boat had been tossed hundreds of feet away.

“We’ll probably stay here, although I’d like to go somewhere without a tornado,” Jackie Seeman said, and started to cry.

Twisters swept across two counties north of Des Moines on Saturday afternoon, ripping up farms and dozens of homes in the towns of Stratford and Woodward. Tornadoes also caused damage in a number of other areas, said Gary Foster, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The governor declared the two hard-hit counties disaster areas.

One person, 84-year-old Lucille Runyan of Stratford, was killed.

Her son, Ron Runyan, said he was trying to get his mother into her basement when the wind “took her away from me,” he said. “It was so dirty, I couldn’t see her, and that was it.”

Robert Carlson sits in a truck near his house Sunday in Stratford, Iowa, the day after a tornado tore the roof off. At least 10 Iowa towns were hit by tornadoes on Saturday.

Officials in Hamilton County said as many as 30 homes in Stratford were destroyed. In Woodward, at least 40 were severely damaged. Search dogs were brought in to check the rubble, but authorities said they believed all residents were accounted for.

“It’s amazing. If you’ve seen the damage here, we had homes that were just obliterated, and they had people in them at the time it came through,” said Dallas County Sheriff Brian Gilbert.

In Stratford, a town of about 750 residents, people were asked to stay away Sunday to give repair crews room to work, said Chris Segar, a communications supervisor with the Hamilton County sheriff’s office.

Gov. Tom Vilsack declared both Hamilton and Dallas counties as disaster areas, making them eligible for state assistance. David Miller, administrator of the state Department of Homeland Security, said the cleanup and rebuilding could take up to a year.

“Tornadoes in November in Iowa just aren’t supposed to happen,” Vilsack said.

Iowa has had just 23 November tornadoes since 1950, according to weather service records.