It came six years, almost to the day, after El Reno was hit by another EF-3 tornado. On May 31, 2013, an unusually wide tornado barreled through the area and killed eight people.

El Reno is a working-class, largely rural suburb of nearly 17,000 people about 25 miles west of Oklahoma City. Cattle graze in the greenery on the sides of the highways, beneath billboards for oil field services companies. More than a few residents keep horses in their yards. The skyline of El Reno is dominated by grain silos, the tallest structures in a town whose history traces back to the establishment in 1874 of Fort Reno, a frontier Army post.

Tornado sirens blared in the town at 10:27 p.m. on Saturday, the mayor said. Four minutes later the tornado struck, damaging the southeastern section of the town near Interstate 40. A television news reporter, Aaron Brilbeck of the local CBS affiliate, KWTV News 9, showed the power of the storm as it came through the town, posting on Twitter: “The hotel across the street from us was leveled. Victims are being pulled from the rubble.”

At a convenience store called Domino across the street from the motel, the assistant manager, Jeffrey Pointer, said the evening had started quietly, with just a sprinkle of rain.

“But then it started pouring,” he said. “The rain was blowing sideways. You couldn’t see anything.”

The wind blew so hard that the windows started shaking. The power cut off, Mr. Pointer said, and an emergency generator kicked on. Then, as quickly as it had started, the roaring wind abated, leaving only rain in its wake.

The phones in the store started ringing, he said, with callers asking if everyone in the store was all right. Then people started walking in the door, drenched. Some had no shirts, Mr. Pointer said. Some were injured. He said a man came to him with his arm bleeding.

“He said: ‘Can you call me an ambulance? I’m hurt real bad,’” Mr. Pointer said.

At the Skyview trailer park, neither Mr. Gawhega nor his aunt, who was asleep in the trailer at the time, was injured. The mobile home was pushed onto its side.