SENECA, Mo. -- As the sun rose Monday morning in Seneca, residents returned.

"It's going to take a long time to clean it up and try to make a decision about what to do with what's left," said Bill Lant.

Saturday's twister leveled a strip mall that housed Lant's feed store. It blew the store's front sign 50 miles away, and it took away his dreams.

"The last 10 years, we've tried to develop this. It was supposed to be a semi-retirement, but it's not going to work out quite that way," Lant said.

The tornado was nearly a mile wide, and it traveled 12 miles in southwest Missouri.

At one location, the trees looked like they were cut in half perfectly with a pair of scissors. At another, a combine was tossed hundreds of yards like a toy.

"I topped the hill, and I just could see it," said Mark Campbell. "I knew it was bad. I was sick to my stomach, praying to God my wife was OK."

The twister was headed right for the Campbells, and when he got home, he found his wife stuck in the basement of their damaged house.

"I had to move debris to get her out, but I'm just in shock," he said.