Glenn Bryan, 68, was watching weather reports on television while taking shelter in the basement of his Pomona, Missouri, home when the power went out.

He went upstairs to find a radio just as a tornado came through. Bryan grabbed a door handle "and hunkered down," he told CNN affiliate KYTV.

"Couldn't hold on much longer," he said. "I thought I'd be gone to the woods."

The back of the house blew away, a tree shattered a large window in front, and his friend's pickup truck flipped upside down, KYTV reported.

"I was stupid" for leaving the basement, Bryan told the station, "but I wanted to know where the storm was ... and I found it. I found it."