Deann Fraser, 51, inspected her tornado-damaged home on March 22, 2022 in Round Rock, Texas. A series of tornadoes have been affected in many cities across Texas, causing widespread damage.
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A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, turning over cars, tearing down roofs of houses and killing at least one person in a region hit by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.
Parts of the st. Bernard Parish, which borders New Orleans in the southeast, seems to take the brunt of the rage of the weather, and that’s where the fatality happened. St. Bernard Parish officials give no details on how the person died; they said many other people were injured.
Rescuers were searching the car park for more people in need, said Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann. St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said the tornado caused widespread damage throughout the park.
Other tornadoes triggered by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing one person Monday and causing several injuries and widespread damage.
In New Orleans, local television stations broadcast live footage of the storm as it swept across the region.
The tornado appears to start in a suburb and then east across the Mississippi River into the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Louis.
A grown tree lay in the parking lot of a shopping mall after a tornado in Round Rock, Texas, US, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
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Many residents also suffered damage just last year when Hurricane Ida – a Category 4 hurricane – hit the region. Stacey Mancuso’s family had just completed repairs to their home in the suburbs of Arabi after Ida tore down the roof and caused extensive water damage. Then, on Tuesday, the tornado hit their road. They hacked with her husband in the laundry room; two children, ages 16 and 11; and dogs as part of their new roof were lifted by the wind.
“We are alive. I can say that at this point. We still have four walls and part of a roof. I consider myself lucky,” Mancuso said. Nevertheless, the Twister was the third time that they had a major weather disaster since Katrina in 2005.
In Arabi, there was a strong smell of natural gas in the air as residents and rescue workers stood on the road and inspected the damage. Some houses were destroyed while pieces of rubble were hanging from electrical wires and trees. An aluminum fishing boat in front of a house was bent in the shape of a C with the engine across the street. The power poles were down and took over, forcing emergency workers to walk slowly through dark areas to check for damage.
Michelle Malasovich lives in Arabic. Initially, she was concerned about family living in areas north of Louisiana that were also hit by bad weather. She texted her family there, saying, “Suddenly, the lights started flashing.”
Her husband was out on the porch and saw the tornado coming.
“It just got louder and louder,” Malasovich said. After it happened, they came out to inspect the damage. “Our neighbor’s house is now in the middle of the street.”
Malasovich’s house was doing relatively well, she said. Several pillars were blown off the porch and the windows of her jeep were blown out. Next to the road, a house was severely damaged, and parked vehicles were swept away by the wind: “This is serious for down here.”
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted late Tuesday that there were no reports of casualties or significant damage to the city and that the power supply was working to restore electricity to the 8,000 affected customers.
About 13,000 homes and businesses were reported without power in the three parishes around New Orleans after the storm.
While people in the metropolitan area are accustomed to dealing with severe weather like hurricanes or heavy rain, it is rare for a tornado to move through the city. A 2017 tornado caused widespread damage as it hit the eastern part of the city.
Before the severe weather, many schools closed early or canceled after-school activities in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Tents opened for residents who need a place to stay while the storm has passed.
Louisiana federal and state authorities have warned thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-supplied mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan because structures are unable to withstand the expected weather. More than 8,000 households live in such temporary neighborhoods, officials said.
After leaving the New Orleans region, the system dumped heavy rain, felling trees and issued some tornado warnings as it moved to Alabama on Tuesday night. The roofs of several homes were damaged in Toxey, Alabama after a storm before tornado warnings passed through the area, the National Weather Service tweeted.
Forecasters had predicted a line of intense weather moving from Texas east to the Deep South, and Monday began with bad weather in Texas.
Several tornadoes have been reported in the Interstate 35 corridor. In Elgin, broken trees lined the country roads and pieces of metal – torn down by strong winds hanging from the branches. Residents were carefully stripped to avoid falling power lines as they managed to clean up the remains of broken ceilings, torn down walls and damaged cars.
JD Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes from his Elgin home.
“There used to be a shed there,” Harkins said, pointing to an empty plot on his uncle’s property covered with scattered dirt. He said the building was empty when the first tornado hit Monday, and that his family is grateful that no one was injured.
Homes and businesses in at least a dozen Texas counties were damaged, according to Storm Prediction Center reports. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a disaster declaration for 16 hard-hit counties. Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett region, while more than a dozen were injured elsewhere.
The Grayson County Emergency Management Office said a 73-year-old woman was killed in the Sherwood Shores community, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, but did not give details.
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