Winter Storm Damage: Tornado in Louisiana, Mississippi

KEITHVILLE, Louisiana — Storm systems that have spawned dozens of reported tornadoes from Texas to the Florida Panhandle have killed at least three people and displaced families across Louisiana, blowing several homes to pieces. After that, it was almost completed in the South on Thursday.

Elsewhere, heavy snowfall and high winds caused more snowstorms in the upper Midwest from the Dakotas to Michigan, and more ice and snow in places from the Appalachians to New England, creating problems.

of National Weather Service It could take days to confirm whether the devastating wind was actually a tornado, but the impact was evident in places like Caddo Parish, Louisiana.Son.

“I go looking for a house and there’s no home, so where are I going to look?” Governor John Bell Edwards said on a one-mile (1.6 km) long road of destruction in the Keithville countryside south of Shreveport. While observing, he said:

The body of 8-year-old Nicholas Little was found in the woods. The body of his mother, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, was later found under storm debris. “He went shopping for his family and when he got home, his house was gone,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Sgt. Casey Jones said.

Presley Stevens and her daughter survived the Keithville storm in their bedroom closet, holding the door shut as high winds ripped the mobile home apart.

Stevens told KTBS-TV, “It was like a big whoosh.”

In Union Parish, near the Arkansas border, the gymnasium was busy with volunteers and survivors pushing through piles of donated clothing. A nearby trailer park with 10 homes was wiped out, and about 30 homes along the nearby Lake d’Arbonne were damaged, he said.

Farmerville’s Patsy Andrews struggled to hold back her tears as she explained how she survived with her daughter, son and boy. A strange wind blew open the front door and her son barely closed and locked the door when her daughter received a tornado alarm and yelled to get out.

“By the time we hit the floor, all we could hear was ‘pow pow! When the window shattered, she said. ‘ We were crawling, it was dark, and my baby was on the couch and he was sleeping. So my son went to grab him off the sofa.It was still popping like glass.

According to Andrews, they rushed to the bathroom, jumped into the bathtub, and huddled in prayer until the storm passed.

“Thankfully everyone in our community is safe,” said Andrews as he looked around the gym. increase.”

A possible Twister devastated parts of New Orleans and nearby parishes. A woman was found dead and eight others were hospitalized with injuries in the Parish of St. Charles after a tornado hit the community of Killona along the Mississippi River.

“She was out of the house so we don’t know exactly what happened,” said St. Charles parish sheriff Greg Champagne. “There was debris everywhere.

A collapsed home in New Orleans injured four people, and a possible tornado in New Iberia, Louisiana, broke windows at the Iberia Medical Center, injuring five, officials said.

“When I went outside, all the windows were broken,” Lindsey Ronsonette, who was with a friend seeking medical attention when the storm hit, told KATC-TV. It was raining here.”

In Mississippi, a suspected tornado destroyed four large poultry houses, one housing 5,000 chickens, said Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey, who said a trailer house in a park in Sharkey County was destroyed. was shredded.

About 10,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, and more than 100,000 were without power in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages.

In Bismarck, North Dakota, a 60-mph gust prompted a no-travel advisory on a major highway and was expected Thursday to add another four inches to the already-falling foot of snow.

“Wind and ice – miserable, lots of people falling into the ditch,” said Dean Cota, manager of the Stamart Travel Center, whose parking lot was full of truckers waiting for the storm. . “Everything is smooth, cars are being blown off the road.”

Forecasters expect more blizzard conditions in parts of the Upper Midwest, with ice and snow from the central Appalachians to the northeast. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning through Friday afternoon. Residents from West Virginia to Vermont were told to be careful about the potential for a significant mix of snow, ice and sleet.

McGill reported from New Orleans.