New Orleans and other parts of southeast Louisiana were assessing damage after a tornado ripped through the region Tuesday night.
The tornado appeared to start in a New Orleans suburb and then move east across the Mississippi River into the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Bernard Parish before moving northeast.
Damage was reported in the areas of Arabi in St. Bernard Parish and in the 9th Ward, said Lauren Nash, a meteorologist with the weather service.
Weather service survey teams will be going to the areas, as well as to the areas of Gretna and Lacombe, she said.
In St. Bernard Parish, which is to the east, parish President Guy McInnis said around five or six homes were “totally demolished.” No there had been no deaths or injuries reported so far.
“We have major damage,” McInnis told WDSU. “We’re doing search and rescue and searching homes right now.
The state’s Fire Marshal office said that teams from the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas had been dispatched to affected areas to conduct search and rescue operations.
A man at a grocery store in Arabi, which is east of New Orleans, told the station in a phone interview that the store is OK but neighbors lost homes.
“The houses are completely destroyed,” he said. “It’s like something out of a movie.”
Gov. John Bel Edwards tweeted that state agencies were assisting as needed as officials assess the impact of tornadoes.
“My prayers are with you in Southeast Louisiana tonight. Please be safe,” Edwards said.
The weather service issued a 7:22 p.m. warning for New Orleans to “find an interior closet, room or hallway and take cover!”
It said a large tornado was on the ground headed toward New Orleans East and that damage had been reported in Gretna, on the western bank of the Mississippi River across from New Orleans.
Video from WDSU appeared to show a funnel cloud.
New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno tweeted that there had been no injuries reported in New Orleans itself, and that the city would be there to help Arabi.
Officials in neighboring Jefferson Parish said shortly after the storm that there had been no major damage or injuries reported.
Tornado watches covered an area from southeastern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and into most of Alabama on Tuesday night.
In Hinds County, Mississippi, storms tore down trees and power lines, emergency management officials said, and the weather prompted Mississippi State University in Starkville to switch to remote classes.
On Monday in Texas, a woman died after a tornado struck her home in Sherwood Shores, about 90 miles north of Dallas, the Grayson County Office of Emergency Management said. The National Weather Service confirmed Tuesday that it was an EF-2 tornado.
More than a dozen people were injured in Monday’s tornadoes and severe weather, officials said.
At least 20 tornadoes were reported Monday across Texas, qualifying as a tornado outbreak. Jacksboro, Crockett, Madisonville, Elgin, Bowie and Rock Round in Texas, as well as Kingston, Oklahoma, were hit hard.
The risk of nocturnal tornadoes, which are more dangerous than their dayside counterparts, is expected to be lower than on Monday.
Many people are under both tornado and flood warnings: Tornado warnings suggest people seek shelter below ground, while flood warnings suggest people seek shelter on high ground, creating a difficult emergency reaction situation, experts said.
After they predicted higher-than-usual storm activity this week, forecasters warn that millions more people are expected to be at risk of severe weather Wednesday in a swath of the Eastern U.S. from northern Florida through North Carolina and up to the Indiana-Ohio border.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 16 counties in his state impacted by the severe weather.
Eleven tornadoes were confirmed in north and central Texas, including the deadly one in Sherwood Shores which had 130 mph winds, the weather service said. The strongest, an EF-3, was confirmed in Jacksboro. Another five were confirmed in eastern and southeastern Texas.
The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, said officials believe the most intense damage in the state from Monday’s storm was at the EF-2 level near Buncombe.
“Talking to local officials, we don’t believe there is any other damage to go higher than EF2 anywhere else,” they wrote.
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