NEW ORLEANS – A tornado tore through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs on Tuesday night, tearing down power lines and scattering debris in a part of the city that was severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann said during a press conference that one person was confirmed dead and many others were injured in the suburbs.
Other tornadoes triggered by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing one person and causing multiple injuries and widespread damage.
A video taken by a local television station showed a large black funnel visible in the dark sky, beneath the buildings in the eastern part of New Orleans.
The tornado appears to start in a suburb of New Orleans and then east across the Mississippi River into the lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Louis.
Reggie Ford was close to the tornado. He drove out of the area, only to return when it happened, to help anyone who needed it. So far, he says, the streets are terribly full, only filled with fresh destruction of the twister.
“I see downstream power lines. A church is completely destroyed. Three businesses are completely destroyed. There are eight apartment blocks missing from their roofs,” the New Orleans resident said. The video he posted on Instagram shows debris tearing down streets and smashing buildings. A crashed car is on the roof.
Debris was spread over an area that covers several blocks east of New Orleans.
In the New Orleans suburb of Arabi, there was a strong odor 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.”
She did not hear the striking freight train sound that many people say comes with a tornado but it was extremely windy, and her husband yelled at her to get out of the bedroom. He 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 check 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 on Tuesday that there were currently no reports of casualties or significant damage to Orleans Parish and that partners @EntergyNOLA are working to restore power to the affected 8,000 customers.
About 13,000 homes and businesses were reported without power in the three parishes around New Orleans after the storm.
Guy McGinnis, president of the st. Bernard Parish, told WWL-TV that the parish had “widespread damage” to parts of the park church bordering New Orleans to the east. Search and rescue teams went through houses searching for people and responding to at least two calls from people who said they were trapped in their homes and bathrooms.
“As of now, no major injuries have been reported,” McGinnis said. “It’s a long night.”
It was not immediately clear if anyone was injured. While the metropolitan area is often hit by severe weather and heavy rain, it is rare for a tornado to move through the city.
High winds lifted trees in Ridgeland, Mississippi, as a possible tornado passed through Jackson City Tuesday afternoon, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or serious damage to buildings. Campus Police at Mississippi State University, in Starkville, shared a photo of a large hardwood tree lying across a street.
Many schools were closed early or canceled after-school activities Tuesday in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi to allow students to return home before the weather worsens. Tents opened for residents who need a place to stay while the storm has passed.
Floods pose a threat to motorists early Tuesday in Louisiana on several streets, including a stretch of Interstate 20 and several state highways after rain overnight, authorities said. Deputies at the Caddo Parish, which includes Shreveport, rescued three drivers from high water overnight, the sheriff’s office tweeted before sunrise.
The storms were expected to intensify throughout the day as temperatures rose, increasing the threat of tornadoes, hail and strong winds. Forecasts predicted intense tornadoes and strong winds, some hurricane force velocities of 75 mph (120 kph) or more, and much of Mississippi, southern and eastern Louisiana, and western Alabama. Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, were among the cities at risk of bad weather.
The system dumped heavy rain, trees fell 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.
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.
In Texas, several tornadoes were reported Monday along the Interstate 35 corridor, particularly in the Austin suburbs of Round Rock and Elgin, as well as in northern and eastern Texas and southern Oklahoma.
In Elgin, broken trees marked the rural roads and pieces of metal – raised 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.
“It was crystal clear, well defined,” Harkins said. “And then one went up and another went down.”
The tornadoes came on a wild day in Texas – forest fires burned in the west and a blizzard warning was issued for the Texas Panhandle, where up to 9 inches (23 inches) of snow fell.
“There is absolutely nothing extraordinary about what we saw yesterday and what we see today,” said Victor Gensini, a meteorology professor at Northern Illinois University who is studying severe storms. It’s the time of year when tornadoes and storms are expected and there are usually more in the years with a La Nina, a natural cooling of parts of the Pacific that changes the weather across the globe, he said.
The biggest concern remains tornadoes that strike at night, Gensini said.
At news conferences in Jacksboro and Crockett, two communities severely damaged by tornadoes, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced a catastrophic 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.
Homes and businesses in at least a dozen Texas counties were damaged, according to Storm Prediction Center reports.
Officials reported damage near Jacksboro, about 60 miles (100 kilometers) northwest of Fort Worth. Photos posted on social media showed a storm tearing down the wall and roof of parts of Jacksboro High School, including his gym.
“It brought tears to my eyes,” school principal Starla Sanders told WFAA-TV in Dallas.
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Acacia Coronado reports from Austin, Texas. Bleed reported from Little Rock, Arkansas. Associated Press Journalist Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Kimberly Chandler to Montgomery, Alabama; Julie Walker to New York; Ken Miller to Oklahoma City; Jill Bleed to Little Rock, Arkansas; Terry Wallace of Dallas; and Janet McConnaughy in New Orleans contributed to this report.
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