1 dead, 8 injured after storms pummel Louisiana

One person died and eight were injured after a severe storm and tornadoes pummeled Louisiana, causing what authorities described Wednesday as “catastrophic” damage in some areas around New Orleans.

The fatality and injuries were in St. Charles Parish, west of the city, sheriff’s spokeswoman Amanda Pertuis said. She said they were related to the storm and described the injuries as non-life threatening.

She did not provide additional details.

Earlier, parish president Matthew Jewell declared a state of emergency after reports of a twister hitting Killona, downing power lines and blocking roads. 

In St. Bernard Parish, officials said a confirmed tornado struck Arabi, a community of around 4,500 just east of New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward. The sheriff’s office in nearby Jefferson Parish said a tornado caused “catastrophic” damage to several homes and businesses.

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Images posted on the Facebook page of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office showed a training facility in Harvey on the West Bank of the Mississippi River that appeared to have been decimated. No one was injured, the sheriff’s office said.

The sheriff’s office said it was assessing damage in the area and carrying out search and rescue operations. 

In Arabi, the tornado struck in nearly the same area as an EF-3 tornado that swept through in March, killing one person and damaging more than 150 structures.

There have been no deaths and no serious injuries in Wednesday’s tornado, St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis said. Ten people were rescued, and damage appeared to be mostly rooftops.

McInnis said he was “very relieved” the damage was not worse.

“We have people in distress right now as we’re sitting in here speaking,” McInnis said at a news conference. “For them, it’s bad, and we know that. And I know we’re out there in the streets right now and we’re going to take care of their problems.”

More than 40,000 customers were without power Wednesday night in the eastern part of the state, according to Poweroutage.us.

Earlier, a tornado struck New Iberia, a couple of hours west of New Orleans, briefly trapping people in their homes, police and the National Weather Service Lake Charles said.

The tornado touched down in the Southport subdivision area just before 11 a.m. An NWS spokesperson said a storm survey will be conducted to determine its strength.

A police spokesperson said in a video update around 1:30 p.m. that all damaged buildings and structures were searched and everyone has been rescued.

“So far, no fatalities have been reported, just injuries, which these individuals are being treated at local hospitals,” the spokesperson said.

At 6 p.m. the weather service in New Orleans said the tornado threat had mostly passed.

But tornado watches covered more than 3 million people in Alabama, the Florida panhandle, and a small section of Mississippi on Wednesday night, according to the weather agency.

On Tuesday, the storm claimed the lives of a boy and his mother in the western part of the state. Officials identified them Wednesday as Nikolus Little, 8, and his mother, Yoshiko Smith.

The Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said they were killed after a tornado destroyed their home in Keithville. Nikolus was found dead in a wooded area, and his mother’s body was found hours later under a pile of debris, the sheriff’s office said.

At least two others were hospitalized in unknown conditions in Shreveport. Other injuries were reported in Farmerville, Louisiana, and in Texas after a tornado struck the city of Grapevine. The weather service said preliminary information showed there were 14 tornadoes across north Texas.