New Orleans tornado kills one
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In the same area devastated by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago, a tornado flips cars and rips roofs off homes in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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The wreckage from the tornado in New Orleans suburbs (AP)
A tornado ripped into New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, flipping vehicles and shredding roofs off homes, killing at least one person in an area devastated by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.
Parts of St. Bernard Parish, which borders New Orleans to the southeast, looked to bear the brunt of the storm's wrath and was the location where one person was killed. Officials from St. Bernard Parish provided no information on how the victim died, but they did say that several other people were hurt.
Emergency workers searched through the parish for more individuals who may need assistance, according to Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann.
Guy McInnis, St. Bernard Parish President, said the tornado was responsible for extensive damage throughout the parish.
Other tornadoes created by the same massive storm slammed areas of Texas and Oklahoma on Monday, killing one person and injuring numerous more and leaving severe damage.
Local television stations in New Orleans carried live photos of the hurricane as it raged over the region.
The tornado seemed to begin in a suburb, then sweep east across the Mississippi River into New Orleans' Lower 9th Ward and areas of St. Bernard Parish, both of which were severely devastated by Katrina, before turning northeast.
Many locals were also harmed last year when Hurricane Ida, a Category 4 hurricane, slammed across the region. Stacey Mancuso's family had just finished repairing their Arabi house after Ida ripped off the roof and caused major water damage. The tornado from Tuesday lifted their roof partially.
Mancuso said she considers herself "lucky", expressing that “we’re alive. That’s what I can say at this point. We still have four walls and part of a roof."
In Arabi, residents reported the smell of natural gas as emergency personnel surveyed the damage. Some houses were demolished and some electrical wires and power poles were leaning into the streets.
Michelle Malasovich says while she was worried about bad weather, "all of a sudden the lights started flickering," detailing that after the storm was over, “our neighbor’s house is in the middle of the street right now.”
Mayor of New Orleans LaToya Cantrell tweeted that no casualties had been reported late Tuesday and that electricity was being restored to the 8,000 people who lost power.
Following the hurricane, around 13,000 houses and businesses were estimated to be without electricity in the three parishes surrounding New Orleans.
While residents in the metropolitan area are accustomed to dealing with extreme weather such as hurricanes or heavy rains, a tornado passing through the city is unusual. When a tornado hit the city's eastern outskirts in 2017, it caused severe devastation.
Schools closed early ahead of the tornado or canceled after-school activities in Louisiana and Mississippi. Shelters were opened for residents who needed them during the storm.
Federal and state officials in Louisiana advised thousands of storm survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and recreational vehicle trailers to have an evacuation plan in place since the buildings might not endure the predicted weather. According to authorities, about 8,000 families are living in such temporary lodgings.
As it moved into Alabama Tuesday evening after departing the New Orleans region, the system dropped heavy rain, destroyed trees, and triggered several tornado warnings. The roofs of numerous homes in Toxey, Alabama, were damaged when a storm followed by tornado warnings moved over the region, according to the National Weather Service.
According to storm prediction centers, a dozen Texas counties were impacted.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reported 10 injuries in the Crockett area, while more than a dozen were injured in other areas.
