Tornado Hurtles Texan From Trailer, Raises Death Toll to 18

A tornado that barreled through the Texas Panhandle on Sunday snatched a man from the front porch of his trailer and dropped his body 130 feet away, one of 18 deaths caused by a string of powerful storms.

The man’s wife and their two children were treated for minor injuries, authorities said. Their trailer was smashed.

The twister skipped through a rural area near Amarillo, touching down at least three times within eight miles. It destroyed eight mobile homes, heavily damaged three houses, seriously injuring four people, officials said.

The tornado also flipped a car, seriously injuring another person. The couple in the car had pulled over on the highway to watch the storm, said Wayne Beighle, a spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety in Amarillo.

In Oklahoma, a tornado ripped through Ardmore, about 100 miles south of Oklahoma City, damaging a tire plant, a gasoline station and several other buildings. It was not immediately known if there were any injuries.

In Dallas, meanwhile, rescuers searched for three people sucked down a manhole by 10-foot floodwaters Friday night.

Missing were two motorists trapped by rising water and a man who tried to help them, said Carolyn Garcia, a spokeswoman for the city’s Office of Emergency Preparedness.

A whirlpool drew all three into a tunnel that drains into the Trinity River. They are presumed dead, she said.

Late Sunday afternoon, authorities found the body of a man who drowned while trying to cross a flooded creek in Ft. Worth. A sheriff’s deputy had thrown the man a rope when he was pulled into the creek Friday night, but the man let go after 20 minutes, officials said.

Since the storms hit Friday, 13 people have drowned, two died in lightning-related accidents and two were killed when a warehouse roof collapsed. The tornado killed one.

The storms brought winds of 70 m.p.h. and softball-sized hail to the Dallas-Ft. Worth area late Friday and early Saturday.