'It just took everything’: Tornadoes kill 3, injure dozens after tearing across southern US
A multiday severe weather outbreak has caused destruction across large swaths of the southern U.S., including near major metropolitan areas of Dallas-Fort Worth and New Orleans, as dozens of tornadoes were reported.
Bill Wadell was in Farmerville, Louisiana, where a tornado severely damaged homes and injured dozens of people on Dec. 13, leaving residents to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.
The barrage of severe weather across the South continued into Wednesday afternoon as storms fired up in Mississippi and Louisiana, prompting officials in the latter to declare a state of emergency.
St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell declared a state of emergency for the parish on Wednesday after one person died and several others were injured following a likely tornado near Killona, which is located roughly 25 miles west of New Orleans. Search and rescue operations were ongoing, and downed powerlines and blocked roads created hazardous driving conditions. On Friday, survey teams from the National Weather Service rated the tornado as an EF2 with winds between 113 mph and 157 mph.
As of Thursday afternoon, at least three people have died during this week's severe weather outbreak, including the 56-year-old woman in Killona who was killed when the tornado destroyed her mobile home, according to NOLA.com.
Two other fatalities had been confirmed during Tuesday's storms after a dangerous tornado had tracked near Four Forks, Louisiana, about 25 miles southwest of Shreveport. A young boy was found deceased in a wooded area of Pecan Farms, a town north of Four Forks, after his home was destroyed by the twister, according to the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. Just after 2 a.m. local time, first responders discovered the body of the boy’s mother under debris located about one street over from where her home was destroyed.
”It's a horrible mess down there … we’re following debris fields trying to find the actual residence, then trying to find if there’s people inside the residence,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Stephen Prator told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency on Dec. 13 as a result of the severe weather and tornadoes.
At least 43 tornadoes had been confirmed to have tracked across the south-central Plains and the South from Dec. 12 to Dec. 15 as of Thursday afternoon, though that number is expected to rise as survey reports are published.
The NWS office in Dallas Fort Worth, which covers a large portion of North Texas, confirmed at least 14 tornadoes, consisting of three EF0 tornadoes, seven EF1 tornadoes and four EF2 tornadoes.
The count of EF2 tornadoes includes the twister that touched down in Wayne, Oklahoma, located about 43 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, before 5:30 a.m. local time on Tuesday, scattering debris across the area. Two other EF2 tornadoes were confirmed from Tuesday in Texas -- one in Wise County that tracked just south of Decatur, Texas, and the second in Lamar County that tracked near Petty to Hopewell.
At least six tornadoes were confirmed in Tarrant County, Texas, where at least five people were injured in the town of Grapevine. While they were hospitalized, none of the injuries suffered had been life-threatening, according to the Grapevine Police Department.
Perhaps one of the more striking scenes of the day had been captured in a photo taken inside a local Sam's Club showing a section of the metal roof pried from the rafters. The Walmart and Grapevine Mills Mall also had been heavily damaged.
One EF3 tornado was confirmed in this week's outbreak, which struck Tuesday in Union Parish with peak winds of 140 mph. The tornado tracked from Bayou D'Arbonne Lake to around the Farmerville area, which is about 105 miles northeast of Shreveport. At least 14 injuries were recorded.
Farmerville resident Tyshiba Wilson told Wadell that she had scrambled to get her two young daughters and niece to the bathtub as the warnings went off on her phone. It was only a matter of seconds before the winds hit, tearing through her home. Wilson braced herself with one foot against the door and the other against the counter, fighting against the wind to hold it shut.
“I said, ‘Y’all pray. We’re going to get through this,’” she recounted to Wadell. “And we made it up out of there, but it was just devastating. It just took everything.”
Tornadoes continued churning up in the state through Wednesday as the weather promoted rescue efforts in New Iberia, Louisiana, about 100 miles west of New Orleans, after the local police department confirmed at least two tornadoes had touched down in the area.
The Iberia Medical Center sustained a "significant amount of damage," according to New Iberia Police Department Capt. Leland Laseter. But despite the damage, no fatalities have been reported as of Wednesday afternoon, and all injuries were being treated at local hospitals.
Later that evening, farther east, a tornado that the NWS has rated as an EF2 tracking from Marrero to the New Orleans suburb of Arabi.
Power lines and metal roofing are seen in a tornado damaged neighborhood in Gretna, La., in Jefferson Parish neighboring New Orleans, Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. AP Photo/Matthew Hinton)
Across state lines, a radar-indicated tornado struck the Mason Trailer Park community in Anguilla, Mississippi, located about 60 miles northwest of Jackson, destroying several mobile homes.
Photos shared over Twitter by Ashley Renee, a meteorologist for The Delta News, showed mobile homes that had been tossed about and scattered across the park. Insulation, cables, cabinets and other pieces of the homes lay exposed to the elements.
The storms continued to rumble through the South into Thursday, though they focused on a much smaller area compared to the last few days.
Reporting by AccuWeather National Reporters Bill Wadell and Jillian Angeline.
Correction: A previous version of this article listed five deaths rather than three.
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