At least three people have died and more than a dozen have been injured across Louisiana in the past 24 hours as severe weather moves across the South, carving a path of destruction.
A tornado touched down in New Orleans around 4 pm CT Wednesday, the National Weather Service confirmed. A returning debris signature was evident on radar, and numerous electrical flashes were seen on tower cameras as the storm moved east of the city. Damage has been reported, but the extent is unclear at this time.
This is one of 3 tornado reports in metro New Orleans in the last two hours. The weather service has not yet issued a report detailing the tornado’s path, but the hardest hit areas were from Gretna to Arabi in Louisiana.
Wednesday’s bad weather is “worse than Hurricane Ida,” Gretna Mayor Belinda Constant told CNN affiliate WDSU. The hurricane hit the area last year.
A 56-year-old woman “died after a tornado destroyed her home” in Killona, about 30 miles west of New Orleans, according to a tweet from the Louisiana Department of Health. The woman’s identity was not immediately released, St. Charles Parish officials said Wednesday.
Eight other people in the parish have non-life-threatening injuries, Sheriff Greg Champagne said during a news conference Wednesday.
Champagne said the tornado was violent.
“There’s a piece of debris on the levee behind you that came from our shooting range, 1.7 miles away,” he said, adding that it was the second time in two weeks that a tornado touched down in the parish of St. Charles. “That one created quite a bit of devastation.”
More than 300 miles north, a boy and his mother were found dead after a tornado destroyed their home Tuesday in the northwest Louisiana community of Keithville, the parish sheriff’s office said of Caddo. The boy’s body was found Tuesday about a half-mile from the home, Sheriff Steve Prator told CNN affiliate KSLA.
The mother was found dead early Wednesday a street from where the home had been, and two other people in the community were injured, the sheriff’s office said.
And 20 people were injured in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville in northern Louisiana, near the Arkansas border, said Farmerville Police Detective Cade Nolan.
In the rest of the state, wreckage was seen with houses and cars upside down in devastated communities where scores of residents told CNN they were hiding in bathtubs in fear as they rode out the storm. The storm system knocked out power to more than 45,000 customers in Louisiana and more than 9,000 in Mississippi, according to PowerOutage.us.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency Wednesday in response to the storms, according to an emergency proclamation.
“This dangerous storm is still with us. Stay tuned to the weather and heed the warnings of your local officials,” the governor tweeted.
The severe weather wreaking havoc across Louisiana and moving across the southeast is part of a massive system that has also been producing heavy snow, and in some places blizzard conditions, in parts of the north-central United States .
Wednesday’s threats come after Tuesday’s storms spawned tornadoes and ripped apart homes and businesses from Oklahoma and the Dallas-Fort Worth area to Mississippi and parts of Louisiana.
A total of 18 tornadoes were reported in Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday, according to the Storm Prediction Center. This is in addition to at least 22 tornado reports since Tuesday from Oklahoma and Texas to Louisiana and Mississippi, including 17 from Tuesday to 6 a.m. CT Wednesday, and at least five since 6 a.m. CT Wednesday. included in New Iberia of Louisiana.
Along with the severe weather, there is a moderate risk of excessive rainfall that could lead to flash flooding Wednesday in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and west-central Alabama, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
Wednesday offered a Level 4 risk, the second-highest of five levels, of severe thunderstorms for nearly 3 million people in eastern Louisiana, including New Orleans; southern Mississippi, including Gulfport; and southwest Alabama, including Mobile, the forecast center said.
This level means widespread severe thunderstorms are likely. Such a high risk is rare for December: Only five Decembers of this level have been assessed in the past decade, a CNN weather analysis shows.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday that 12 state offices in the parish are closed due to severe weather in the state. The storms also prompted closures at Louisiana State University and Southern University in Baton Rouge on Wednesday.
Tornadoes have already been reported in the region on Wednesday, including the New Orleans area.
The chaotic weather caused the closure of the Calçada bridge. The bridge spans 24 miles over Lake Pontchartrain, according to the Causeway website. The bridge is billed as “The World’s Longest Bridge Over Water,” says the Causeway’s website.
About 29 miles south of New Orleans, officials with the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office are assessing the damage and conducting search and rescue operations. Extensive damage has been reported in the parish and the sheriff’s office is working with the fire department and parish government in their damage assessment.
“Some houses and businesses have suffered catastrophic damage. At least one of our facilities was severely damaged. No one was injured at our facility,” the sheriff’s office wrote on its Facebook page.
We share everyone’s concern for the areas affected by this afternoon’s tornado. If you need…
Posted by Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday, December 14, 2022
More than 100 kilometers to the west, a tornado early Wednesday damaged several homes in the city of New Iberia, and rescue efforts were underway to free an unspecified number of trapped people, city police said.
The New Iberia Police Department confirmed in a video posted on Facebook that two tornadoes touched down in the city. The department also said several homes were damaged with people trapped in the Southport subdivision after a tornado touched down.
Restrictions are now in place in the city’s Southport subdivision, police said Wednesday.
“Effective immediately, only citizens who reside in the [Southport] subdivision will be allowed in the neighborhood,” the department said, adding that proof of residency will be required for access.
There is a curfew in the area from 20:00 to 05:00 local time. During that time, traffic will be “restricted to residents returning from work or emergencies only,” police said.
Additionally, Iberia Medical Center “suffered a significant amount of damage,” police Capt. Leland Laseter said on Facebook. CNN has reached out to the medical center for comment. At New Iberia High School, a shelter has been set up inside the gymnasium for all displaced people.
The Parish Sheriff’s Office of St. Charles said Wednesday that he received reports of a tornado that hit Killona, severely damaging homes and declaring a state of emergency in the parish. The parish of St. Charles is about 20 miles upriver from New Orleans.
“The Emergency Operations Center is receiving reports of damage in the Killona area, including downed power lines and blocked roads,” read a Facebook post from the parish of St. Charles. “Residents should avoid the area and not touch power lines as they may still be live.”
At least 20 people were injured in the small Union Parish town of Farmerville, Louisiana, when a tornado touched down Tuesday night, Farmerville Police Detective Cade Nolan said.
Parts of an apartment complex and mobile home park in the Farmerville area were torn down, with fallen trees and other debris littering a road and fields, a CNN crew saw Wednesday. In speaking with residents, many told CNN correspondents that the storm sounded like a train passing their homes.
Beth Tabor weathered the storm and bad weather that hit Farmerville, she told CNN Wednesday afternoon.
“It looks like they say, it’s a freight train,” Tabor told CNN’s Derek Van Dam. “Once everything stopped, all the noise, that’s how I knew it was safe to come out.”
While the entire ordeal of waiting in her bathroom with her roommates and a baby lasted about 20-25 seconds, Tabor said it felt “much longer than that.”
“Every little crunch and noise, I mean, it felt like it was right on top of us,” Tabor said. “It was pretty bad, just hearing … everything was flying around and you couldn’t do anything about it.”
Tabor said her home was “absolutely” damaged by the storm.
“In my hallway you can see the sky, the bedrooms – everything is broken, everything is torn. The front and back windows blew out,” he said. “We made it out alive last night, so everyone take note, it’s an act of God.”
Patsy Andrews was at home with her children when a tornado hit Farmerville Tuesday night. She told CNN affiliate KNOE-TV that she was praying on a faith line when a heavy downpour began, and outside it sounded like “wind rushing like a train.”
He headed to the back door to look outside to investigate because the…