A tornado swept through New Orleans, Texas and Oklahoma: at least one dead and thousands without electricity

A tornado swept through parts of New Orleans and its suburbs Tuesday night, flipping cars, ripping roofs off houses and killing at least one person in a region that was hit by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.

Parts of the parish of St. Bernard, which borders New Orleans to the southeast, seemed to suffer the brunt of the weather rage, and that's where the fatality occurred. Officials from the parish of St. Bernard did not give details on how the person died; they said that many other people were injured.

Rescuers were searching the suburban parish for more people who needed assistance, according to Sheriff Jimmy Pohlmann. The president of the parish of St. Bernard, Guy McInnis, said the tornado caused widespread damage throughout the parish.

Other tornadoes generated by the same storm system hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma, killing one person on Monday and causing multiple injuries and widespread damage.

In New Orleans, local television stations broadcast live footage of the storm as it hit the region.

The tornado appeared to start in a suburb and then move east across the Mississippi River into New Orleans's lower 9th district and parts of St. Bernard, both badly damaged by Katrina, before moving northeast.

Many residents were also damaged last year when Hurricane Ida, a category 4 hurricane, swept the region. Stacey Mancuso's family had just completed repairs to their home in the Arabi suburb after Ida ripped off the roof and caused extensive water damage. Then Tuesday's tornado crossed his street. She curled up in the laundry room with her husband; two sons, 16 and 11 years old; and dogs as part of her new roof was lifted by the wind.

“We are alive. That's what I can say right now. We still have four walls and part of a roof. I consider myself lucky,” Mancuso said. Still, the tornado was the third time they suffered major weather damage since Katrina in 2005.

In Arabi, there was a strong smell of natural gas in the air as residents and rescue personnel stood on the street and inspected the damage. Some houses were destroyed while pieces of rubble hung on electrical wires and trees. An aluminum fishing boat in front of a house was bent into a C-shape with the engine across the street. Power poles were down and tilted, forcing emergency workers to slowly walk through dark neighborhoods to check for damage.

Michelle Malasovich lives in Arabia. Initially, she was concerned about the family living in areas north of Louisiana that were also being hit by bad weather. He was texting with his family there when, he said, “All of a sudden, the lights started flashing.”

Her husband was on the porch and he saw the tornado coming.

“It just kept getting stronger and stronger,” Malasovich said. After it happened, they went out to inspect the damage. “Our neighbor's house is in the middle of the street right now.”

Malasovich's house did relatively well, he said. Some columns flew from the porch and the windows of his Jeep too. At the end of the street, a house was severely damaged and the parked vehicles had been moved by the winds: “This is serious for down here.”

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell tweeted Tuesday night that there were no reports of significant casualties or damage in the city and that the energy company was working to restore electricity to the 8,000 affected customers.

About 13,000 homes and businesses were reportedly without power in the three boroughs around New Orleans after the storm.

While people in the metropolitan region are used to dealing with adverse weather conditions, such as hurricanes or torrential rain, it is rare for a tornado to pass through the city. A 2017 tornado caused widespread damage when it landed in the eastern part of the city.

Before severe weather, many schools closed early or canceled extracurricular activities in parts of Louisiana and Mississippi. Shelters were opened for residents who needed a place to stay while storms passed.

Louisiana federal and state authorities reminded thousands of hurricane survivors living in government-provided mobile homes and RV trailers to have an evacuation plan because the structures might not withstand the expected weather. More than 8,000 households live in these temporary accommodations, authorities said.

After leaving the New Orleans area, the system unloaded heavy rain, knocked down trees, and triggered multiple tornado warnings as it progressed into Alabama on Tuesday night. Roofs of several homes were damaged in Toxey, Alabama, after a storm preceded by tornado warnings passed through the area, the National Weather Service tweeted.

Forecasters had been forecasting a line of intense weather moving from Texas east to the deep south, and Monday began with inclement weather in Texas.

Several tornadoes were reported along the Interstate 35 corridor. In Elgin, broken trees lined the country roads, and pieces of metal, torn by strong winds, hung on the branches. Residents walked carefully to avoid downed power lines as they worked to clean up the remains of broken roofs, knocked down walls, and damaged cars.

JD Harkins, 59, said he saw two tornadoes pass through his home in Elgin.

“There used to be a barn there,” Harkins said, pointing to empty land on his uncle's property covered in scattered debris. He said the building was empty when the first tornado hit on Monday and that his family is grateful that no one was injured.

Homes and businesses in at least a dozen Texas counties were damaged, according to reports from the Storm Prediction Center. Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced a disaster declaration for 16 hard-hit counties. Abbott said 10 people were injured by storms in the Crockett area, while more than a dozen were injured elsewhere.

The Grayson County Office of Emergency Management said a 73-year-old woman died in the community of Sherwood Shores, about 60 miles (95 kilometers) north of Dallas, but did not provide details.

(with information from AP)

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