A tornado ripped apart the roof of an elementary school, damaged house roofs, smashed trees and toppled power lines when it struck Hartford this afternoon ... but there are no reports of serious injuries.

One person was taken to a hospital with injuries from the storm but was treated and released.

The twister left debris strewn around Hartford's south side where it hit just before 3 p.m.

Hartford High School teacher Mark Arnholt says he and his wife, Amy, were headed downstairs when they heard the train-like sound of a tornado and then they heard a big crack that was probably the sound of the play set in their yard getting toppled.

Jacki Lokken, who serves on the Hartford City Council, says she saw a funnel cloud while driving home from the grocery store and saw it move on its path. She calls it the most incredible thing she's ever seen.

Weather officials say the tornado caused part of the roof and a wall of the Silver Belle Motel to collapse and also damaged the roof of Lincoln Elementary School.

The National Weather Service gives the storm a preliminary rating of F-1 on the Fujita scale for measuring the strength of tornadoes, which means it had winds from 73 to 112 miles an hour.