05-25-2011, 05:09 PM
Family seeks high school grad Will Norton sucked out of car's sunroof during Joplin tornado
A Joplin family is pleading for help in finding a new high school grad who they say was sucked out of his car by the deadly weekend twister that killed 118 people.
Will Norton was on his way home with his father after getting his diploma from Joplin High School when the tornado struck the Missouri city, his family told CBS News Tuesday.
The 18-year-old and his dad, Mark, were racing to get home as the twister barreled down on them, Will Norton's sister Sara said on the "Early Show."
"We left about five minutes before them," she said. "We barely made it in the garage."
Mark called his daughter while they were on the road, and was on the phone with her when they were caught up in the twister.
"He was telling my brother, 'Pull over, pull over,' " Sara said. "I heard the tornado whipping them around. I had a feeling they were flipping around in the air. It was just really scary."
The Hummer H3 was crushed by the tornado when family members reached it, just a short distance from their house.
"They had to cut Mark out of it," said Tracey Presslor, Will Norton's aunt.
Will was nowhere to be found.
Sara said her father, who suffered several broken bones and a head injury, told them he fought to save the teen.
"He said he had his arms around Will when they started flipping, and Will's seat belt snapped and he flew through the sunroof," she said.
The family has been desperately struggling to find him ever since. They received news that he may have been alive at a hospital in Joplin, but that he was later moved.
"We heard that he was checked into the hospital, he was alive," Presslor told Anderson Cooper on CNN, adding that he was later transferred and they had received no word about him since.
The family has set up a Facebook page, Help Find Will Norton, along with a phone number - (757) 751-9455 - in hopes of getting more information
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