Flood Watch in New York as Storm Heads East

A severe weather system blamed for two deaths plowed eastward Saturday, rattling the Gulf states with strong thunderstorms as the Northeast prepared for possible coastal flooding.

The storm blew across the southern Plains on Friday, piling snow a foot deep in Kansas and raking Texas with high wind.

"I felt my house start shaking like the wind and I ran in here and grabbed my little girl," Amanda Rymer, 21, said in Haltom City, Texas. "As soon as I moved her, the roof fell in right where she was standing." (Watch how wind tossed 18-wheelers like toys Video)

The storm tore roofs off houses in Rymer's neighborhood and destroyed porches and garages. About a dozen tractor-trailer rigs were blown onto their sides.

One man was killed in Fort Worth by a pile of lumber that fell on him from his truck during the storm, and a police officer in Irving died when his patrol car slid on wet pavement and struck a utility pole, authorities said.