Can tornadoes cause extreme damage to one area and hardly touch another are just a few hundred feet away?

Yes. Some tornadoes aren't very big, though the more destructive ones tend to be large, and the area of the worst winds is often only a small portion of the overall damage path. In some cases it may not even be even a few hundred feet. A tornado may level ones structure and leave the one next to it with only minor damage. This is because some tornadoes contain smaller vortices with winds up to 100 mph faster than the rest of the tornado, which can mean the difference between EF1 (moderate) damage and EF5 (incredible) damage. This may also result from a narrow but very intense tornado.

One of the most jarring examples of this occurred in the F5 tornado that struck the town of Elie, Manitoba. A well built, firmly anchored brick house was ripped from its foundation and thrown several hundred feet, disintegrating in midair. The house next to it only lost part of its roof.