A few injuries were reported but no fatalities, and people across the area were expressing thanks for that.

Barry Williard, the chief of the Courtney Volunteer Fire Department in Yadkin County, said he and two other firefighters were inside their fire station about 4:30 p.m. on Courtney-Huntsville Road when they saw a tornado coming toward them, from the southwest.

“At that time, we took cover in the fire department,” Williard said. “Whenever we looked out, we saw substantial damage across the road (at Courtney Elementary School). It was a pretty good size debris field.”

At the school, a tornado struck the school’s gym, knocking down two walls and tearing off its roof, authorities said.

Just before the tornado touched down, a group of about 25 people, including students and teachers, took cover inside the school adjacent to the gym, said Keith Vestal, the county emergency management director. No one at the school was injured.

“They followed their tornado warning plan, and everything worked well,” Vestal said.

The National Weather Service confirmed that tornadoes touched down in southeastern Yadkin County and southwestern Stokes County. The weather service received a report that a funnel cloud, possibly a tornado, touched down six miles northeast of Statesville in Iredell County.

There was also an unconfirmed report of a tornado near Monroe in Union County.

Three people were injured and 35 houses and other structures were damaged in the Four Corners Road area in northeastern Davie County, where local officials declared a state of emergency, according to Jerry Myers, the county’s emergency management coordinator.

Two of the injured were wounded during the storm and one afterward when he cut himself using a chain saw to cut a tree, Myers said, adding that none of the injuries in Davie County was serious.

A woman in a mobile home on Baity Road in southeastern Yadkin County was injured when the tornado touched down near Courtney Elementary School, her neighbors said. The woman suffered broken bones and was taken to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, the neighbors said.

In Stokes County the storm cut a path from the southwest around Pinnacle toward Lawsonville to the northeast, plowing across Sauratown Mountain in the process and snapping off so many trees it looked like part of the mountain had been logged.

The worst damage in Stokes County seemed concentrated in an area encompassing Marshall Smith Road, YMCA Camp Road and Cliff View Drive, where a number of mobile homes were damaged, said Stokes County Sheriff Mike Marshall. Those neighborhoods all sit at the foot of the south side of Sauratown Mountain.

“So far, I have personally seen about 15 homes that have damage and I’m sure there are more,” Marshall said Wednesday night as he moved around the area checking for damage. “I’m making my way through, trying to get them shelter through emergency management.”

On YMCA Camp Road there were three houses destroyed, including two modular homes, Marshall said.

“There were several barns that were totally demolished,” he said.

A giant oak tree sliced through the kitchen and dining area of a mobile home off Marshall Smith Road, but the renters, Will and Nancy Gambill, got out before the damage when they heard about the tornado warning.

“They left and went to Walmart so nobody was at home, but it has got a lot of damage,” said Sandra Smith, the owner of the mobile home. Smith and her husband Stanley were at their house on Gentry Farm Road when the storm hit.

“It didn’t hit our house but we have a streak of trees through the woods where it clipped them,” Sandra Smith said. Smith gathered together some relatives and took shelter in her own basement at the height of the storm.

“There was a huge roaring noise in the fireplace,” she said. “I looked out and the trees were swaying real bad and it was dark, but we were fine in the basement.”

Vickie and Bobby Boyles were in the den of their home on Marshall Smith Road when the storm hit.

“The power kept blinking,” Vickie Boyles said. “And the next thing that happened was a racket. We looked at each other and both of us said, ‘What happened?’ We opened the door and there was so much mud on the storm door we couldn’t see out. And he opened the door and everything was gone.”

The storm blew away the Boyles’ carport and left it scattered across the yard on the other side of the house. It blew the roof off the den where the couple had been during the storm. A mailbox and the electrical attachment to the house were both ripped away. The whole front of their house was spackled with little bits of insulation.

“There’s lots and lots of trees down,” said Maj. Jeff Lemons, Stokes County Sheriff’s Office, who manned traffic control at an intersection on Marshall Smith Road. “I know of several areas where there are trees on houses and on porches. There’s been some barn roofs and outbuilding roofs blown off. I’ve seen a couple of hay barns and outbuildings blown off of their foundations.”

Lemons said he was on the other side of Sauratown Mountain when the storm came across and that it “looked like the mountain split the storm.”

Damage extended toward Lawsonville on the north side of the mountain, but authorities said it was not as bad there.

As the storm made its way into Stokes County it downed trees onto U.S. 52, blocking the southbound lanes until the trees could be cleared away.

Yadkin County first responders helped people in 10 damaged houses on Baity Road get out of their homes. The affected residents are staying with their relatives in Yadkin County, authorities said. The American Red Cross was also helping.

Courtney Elementary will be closed today because of damage from the tornado. Stokes County schools are on a two-hour delay today, with the start of end-of-grade testing postponed to Friday, school officials said.

Duke Energy said about 1,100 customers in Northwest North Carolina were without power about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday.