A large tornado bounced through several northern Colorado towns on Thursday, killing at least one person, damaging or destroying dozens of homes and flipping over tractor-trailers and freight rail cars. Dazed residents retrieved what they could from their homes in Windsor, a town of 16,000 about 70 miles north of Denver that was hardest hit. Power crews removed downed lines and poles from streets and bulldozers cleared debris. "I didn't want to see this. That's for sure," said Alexander Martinez, 41, gazing at a staircase, balcony, television and couch from his apartment that ended up in his front yard in an east Windsor neighborhood. The roof and a front wall were gone. "It passed right over us like a big, white monster," said Thomas Coupe, 87, of Windsor. The large storm cloud brought heavy hail and descended nearly without warning, touching down near Platteville, about 50 miles north of Denver. Over the next hour, it skipped along a 35-mile-long northwesterly track past Gilcrest, Milliken, Greeley, Windsor and Timnath before the system moved on into southern Wyoming, where a tornado was reported in Laramie. Nine people were hospitalized with various injuries at the Medical Center of the Rockies in Loveland, said spokesman Alex Stuessie. In Greeley, four people were treated for minor injuries at North Colorado Medical Center, said administrative representative Laurie Hamit. Several other, minor tornadoes were reported in northern Colorado throughout the day, the National Weather Service said. Weld County Sheriff John Cooke said one man was killed at a campground west of Greeley, about 60 miles north of Denver. The man's identity wasn't immediately released. Pete Ambrose, caretaker at the Missile Park campground, said the man was in a recreational vehicle that was destroyed by the storm. Two other people camping at the park "got beat up, but they were still OK," said Ambrose, who took shelter in a concrete-block restroom as the tornado passed overhead. "My house is gone," said Ambrose. "I lost my dog. I lost my cats. I lost my camper. I lost everything." Loree Wilkinson, 39, said her children, ages 6 and 9, were playing with hail outside their home until the hail got bigger. She rushed them into the basement. Wilkinson said her youngest child, Kazden, prayed: "Please don't let me die because I just graduated from kindergarten." Richard Dykstra, 65, was in his Windsor pest-control office with six other people when it began to hail and the roof began to slide off the building. "We had about 90 seconds, but we managed to get into the basement," Dykstra said. He said he then ran to a day care center where his grandson was. No children were hurt, and they were herded into a vault at a nearby bank until the storm system cleared. Golf ball-size hail started falling at The Universal Forest Products Lumber Yard when controller Mark Duncan hurried employees into the basement. "It just hit without warning," he said. For 10 minutes, said forklift operator Edgar Celedon, 26, the workers heard tin and metal crashing and windows breaking. They dodged falling lights and insulation flying around inside the basement. The plant's manager took cover in a ditch next to rail tracks across the street