On a cold, windy, overcast day, Paula Gazaway paused momentarily to study the piles of rubble that once were her neighbors’ homes.

Then she resumed packing away clothes, knickknacks and family pictures she was able to salvage Saturday from her own mobile home, which was still standing but so damaged it was unlivable.

Five of her neighbors were among the 11 killed when a tornado swept through the area Friday morning. After collecting her own belongings she planned to help out their families.

“I’m going to try to gather up some of these people’s stuff that can be saved. The least little bit you can get helps,” she said.

The tornado tore through a 10-mile stretch of rural northeast Georgia, destroying 41 houses, 29 mobile homes and eight chicken houses in Hall County, which includes Gainesville, said Elaine Sexton, the county’s emergency management agency director.

It was part of a storm system that struck Hall and four other counties. Altogether, a total of more than 400 homes, 30 businesses and 11 poultry farms were destroyed or damaged across the five counties, said Buzz Weiss, spokesman for the Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

“I can’t tell you how humbling this day has been for me. I’ve never seen anything of this caliber, and I hope I never see it again,” Sexton said.

All 11 Georgia fatalities occurred in Hall County. In addition, more than 80 people were injured and Sexton said early estimates put property damage at more than $13.5 million.

From Georgia, the storm raged into North Carolina, where an afternoon tornado wrecked the center of Stoneville, killing two more people and injuring 27. High wind also caused scattered damage in the nearby corner of Tennessee.

Asked Saturday what Stoneville needed most, Mayor Rex Tuggle said simply: “Sleep and prayers.”

Eighty percent of downtown Stoneville was damaged, most of it beyond repair, said Deputy Fire Marshal Robert Cardwell.

The town, incorporated in 1878, had hoped to use its Victorian-era architecture as a drawing card for an antique shop and bed-and-breakfast trade.

Instead, the town was littered with heaps of red brick, broken glass and smashed wood.

“We’ve lost 100 years of history here,” said Barbara Belton, whose antique shop at the town crossroads lost its roof and upper walls.