Louisiana digging out after tornadoes
ARABI, La. • Louisiana National Guardsmen and other responders went door-to-door in some areas around New Orleans on Wednesday as the region dug out from overnight tornadoes, with Gov. John Bel Edwards declaring a state of emergency and calling the destruction “devastating.”
Other tornadoes spawned by the same system caused so much damage in Texas that the governor declared a disaster in 16 counties. Buildings were shredded in Alabama, where torrential rainfall was recorded.
Two people were killed and multiple others were injured as the storm front blew across the South, upending homes and the lives of the residents in them. The dead included a woman north of Dallas and a person in St. Bernard Parish, next to New Orleans. Authorities didn’t immediately describe how they were killed.
Edwards declared an emergency in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes. After flying over the area Wednesday, he walked the streets of the tornado-stricken Arabi community near New Orleans, greeting storm victims picking through the wreckage of their homes.
“It’s awfully sad, because the destruction is so devastating,” Edwards said. “The good news is most of your neighbors outside of this narrow swath — they’re able to help.”
In front of her roofless home, another woman told Edwards that she, her husband and their 1-year-old son took refuge in the bathroom as the tornado bore down.
“My husband just ran for us to get into the bathroom, and we just dropped down, and he jumped on top of us, covering our son,” she said. “So scary.”
There were “no injuries, casualties or significant damage reported in Orleans Parish,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Wednesday, but tornadoes touched down in Arabi, just east of the city, and further east in Lacombe, across Lake Pontchartrain.
In Arabi, debris hung from electrical wires and trees amid destroyed houses. Power poles were down, forcing emergency workers to walk slowly through darkened neighborhoods.
In this aerial photo, people walk amid destruction Wednesday from a tornado that struck in Arabi, La. Residents of severely damaged or destroyed homes in Arabi swept up broken glass and tried to salvage their belongings.
