BLUE RIDGE, Texas — The winds had finally calmed when Debralee King and her husband ventured out to check on their horses and see what damage the tornado had caused. Then she heard a scream.

King saw her neighbor, Jose Daniel Santillano — shirtless and shoeless — running toward her with his newborn daughter in his arms. The child was gravely injured. Her tiny hand was cold.

“He wanted me to take her to the hospital,” King said. “He was frantic. His wife was still trapped.”

With that, King was thrust into the unsuccessful effort to save the likely youngest victim of a powerful line of weekend storms that spawned multiple tornadoes, destroyed several hundred homes and displaced residents throughout Dallas’ suburbs.

At least 11 people died and dozens were injured in the tornadoes that swept through the area on Saturday, pushed by a powerful storm system that continued to hit the nation’s midsection on Monday with heavy snow, ice, rain, flooding and blustery winds. More than 2,800 flights nationwide were canceled Monday — more than half of them at Chicago’s two main airports — but that had dropped to 600 by Tuesday morning.

Deaths also were attributed to the recent weather in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas, and governors declared disaster declarations in numerous states. Although the weather was expected to fade, more flooding was expected along the swollen Mississippi River on Tuesday.