Tornado hits New Orleans as flash flood warning is issued in Louisiana amid severe weather crisis

A large tornado touched down in downtown New Orleans on Wednesday afternoon, a day after a similar storm devastated a small community in northern Louisiana, leaving a mother and son dead and hundreds of homes destroyed.

The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said the body of 8-year-old Nikolus Little was found around 11pm Tuesday in a wooded area. His mother, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, was found dead under storm debris around 2:30 am Wednesday.

A second violent tornado was tracked heading for the West Bank neighborhood of New Orleans, leaving buildings severely damaged and moving toward the Ninth Ward section. The tornado is being accompanied by heavy rain.

ABC News meteorologist Rob Marciano tweeted a video showing roofing material and building insulation rushing out of buildings at the Canal Street tourist hotspot. The storm has left many in the area without power.

Another woman has been confirmed dead in the St. Charles Parish area, just west of the city, outside her home. She was 56 years old. Her cause of death has not been confirmed.

Jefferson Parish Sheriff Joseph Lopinto said NOLA.com: We have received reports of several collapsed houses.

While Gretna Police Chief Arthur Lawson told the website: “We have extensive damage on the north side of the [West Bank] highway and through Old Gretna and the Garden Park subdivision.

This comes after a Louisiana tornado killed a 30-year-old woman and her 8-year-old son in the small town of Keithville, about 300 miles north of New Orleans near Shreveport on Tuesday afternoon.

Damaged homes in the West Bank section of New Orleans Tuesday afternoon

The storm was recorded rolling toward New Orleans by motorists around the Highway 90 overpass in New Iberia.

A Winn Dixie supermarket in the Marrero section of New Orleans saw its store completely flattened by the violent storm.

Miraculously, no injuries were reported at the Winn Dixie

Residents are urged to stay home even though thousands are without power due to downed power lines in the area.

Sheriff Steve Prator said his home was destroyed and the boy ended up half a mile away, while his mother’s body was discovered a street down the street from where her mobile home was. When deputies arrived at his address, they found nothing more than a concrete slab, the sheriff’s sergeant said. Casey Jones.

‘You go to search a house and the house isn’t even there, so where do you search?’ Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters, noting the challenge facing emergency services as he walked a mile-long path of destruction in Keithville.

Wednesday’s forecast called for more severe storms and additional tornadoes were expected in an area of ​​the Gulf Coast region populated by nearly 3 million people from New Orleans to Mobile, Alabama. More damaging weather was possible on the Florida fringe.

The tornado first struck here in the West Bank neighborhood of New Orleans, leaving homes destroyed.

A steady stream of tornado warnings were issued Wednesday in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

Disorderly remains of a devastated community in the West Bank after Wednesday’s tornado.

A steady stream of tornado warnings were issued Wednesday in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.

In Union Parish, on Louisiana’s northern border with Arkansas, Farmerville Mayor John Crow said a tornado Tuesday night heavily damaged an apartment complex where 50 families lived and leveled a neighboring trailer park with about 10 houses. “It happened fast,” Crow said Wednesday, adding that about 30 homes were damaged along nearby Lake D’Arbonne.

Shannon Futch, Union Parish emergency director, said there were reports of numerous people being treated for cuts and bruises and at least two people hospitalized after a tornado caused damage about 5 miles (8 kilometers) long, toppling trees on a dozen houses. .

“Some people even spent the night in their houses that had big pine trees,” Futch said. They had nowhere to go.

TEXAS: Michelle Light salvages belongings from her home in Salado, Texas, after a tornado ripped through the area

LOUISIANA: Mobile homes in Louisiana’s Caddo Parish were flattened Tuesday after a tornado tore through the area.

Louisiana’s Caddo Parish Sheriff reported late Tuesday that several mobile homes were destroyed in the area, leaving the boy and his mother dead.

A suspected tornado reported in New Iberia, in southwestern Louisiana, damaged several buildings on the New Iberia Medical Center campus, hospital officials said, leaving five people with minor injuries.

In neighboring Mississippi, a suspected tornado destroyed four large chicken coops, one of which housed 5,000 roosters, in Rankin County, Mississippi, Sheriff Bryan Bailey said. Mobile homes in a park in Sharkey County, Mississippi have been reduced to piles of crushed rubble. Resident Leslie Jackson told WLBT-TV that her house was one of the few left standing.