ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The tornado hurtled toward the nursing home. Physical therapist Patti Gilroy said she saw the swirling mass barreling down through the back door, after she herded patients into the hallway in the order trained: walkers, wheelchairs, then beds.

“It wasn’t like a freight train like everybody says it is,” said Gilroy, who rounded up dozens to safety at Green Oaks Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. “It sounded like a bomb hit. And we hit the floor, and everybody was praying. It was shocking.”

The National Weather Service said as many as a dozen twisters touched down in a wrecking ball swath of violent weather that stretched across Dallas and Fort Worth. The destructive reminder of a young tornado season Tuesday left thousands without power and hundreds of homes pummeled or worse.

As the sun rose today over the southern Dallas suburb of Lancaster, one of the hardest hit areas, it was clear that twisters had bounced in and out of neighborhoods, destroying homes at random. Vehicles were tossed like toys, coming to rest in living rooms and bedrooms.

At one house, a tornado had seemingly dipped into the building like an immersion blender, spinning directly down through an upstairs bedroom and wreaking havoc in the family room below before lifting straight back up and away. In the downstairs room, a grandfather clock stood pristine against a wall and the front door remained in place, but all between the two was smashed to nothing.

Despite the intensity of the slow-moving storms, only a handful of people were hurt, a couple of them seriously, and no fatalities were reported as of late Tuesday.

The Red Cross estimated that 650 homes were damaged. Around 150 Lancaster residents stayed in a shelter Tuesday night.

“I guess ‘shock’ is probably a good word,” Lancaster Mayor Marcus Knight said.

The exact number of tornadoes won’t be known until surveyors have fanned across North Texas, looking for clues among the debris that blanketed yards and rooftops peeled off slats.

April is typically the worst month in a tornado season that stretches from March to June, but Tuesday’s outburst suggests that “we’re on pace to be above normal,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Matt Bishop.