Tornadoes in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, in the wake of Hurricane Irene and Anisotropic Hurricane Ian
A woman in the area died of cold after she became stuck in the water and her roof caved in. A 96-year-old man drowned after he got trapped under a parked car. In Fort Myers Beach, the body of an 85-year-old woman was found in a tree several days after the storm.
After Hurricane Ian punched Florida last week, shredding beachfront towns and flooding large swaths of the state, the storm was blamed by state and county officials for at least 119 deaths, more than any other hurricane had caused in Florida since 1935. Officials in North Carolina linked four deaths there to the storm as well.
Information released by the state and local governments this week showed a distressing portrait of the damage caused by Hurricane Harvey and how overwhelmed it was by both residents and emergency responders.
A sudden start to cold weather with warm conditions had been forecast to create the biggest tornado threat the US has seen in more than five months.
Tornadoes hit hard in McCurtain County, Oklahoma, in the southeastern corner of the state. One death has been confirmed by the county’s emergency manager.
Nine twisters formed in Texas, four in Arkansas, and one in Oklahoma, a preliminary count by the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center shows.
Superstorms and Hurricanes are Possible in Lamar County, Louisiana, and the Elliptical Miss Mississippi Region
The number will likely go up in the afternoon of Saturday, but the intensity of each will not be known until damage surveys are conducted by local NWS offices.
In neighboring Lamar County, where Paris is the county seat, “there has been quite a bit of damage and some injuries,” Lamar County Constable Travis Rhodes told CNN Friday night.
In Oklahoma, a woman was injured by a falling tree as she was heading to a storm shelter, Lewis Collins, a volunteer at the Choctaw Office of Emergency Management, told CNN. He said it was unclear whether a tornado went through the area.
There were more than 40 million people who were at risk of severe storms Friday. The risk areas include Houston, San Antonio, Oklahoma City,Little Rock, Kansas City and Wichita.
A watch is in effect until midnight for western and central Arkansas, northwest Louisiana, southeast Oklahoma, and east and northeast Texas.
In addition to intense tornadoes, scattered large to very large hail, bigger than golf ball-sized (2 inches in diameter), are also possible, according to the Storm Prediction Center.
• Tornadoes and damaging winds are possible Wednesday over parts of southern Louisiana, southern and central Mississippi, southern Alabama and the western Florida Panhandle.
This storm system will be moving quickly from west to east, which will minimize the chance for flash flooding to occur across the Ark-La-Tex region. There is expected to be rain through Saturday over a broad area from Kansas to Wisconsin.
Due to the recent dry weather, the Mississippi River has reached record low levels affecting shipping and the supply chain.
Multiple tornadoes and homes destroyed in Lamar county, Texas, on Friday evening as the country’s largest severe weather event approached Little Rock
The US had an average of 1,173 tornadoes per year over the course of five years. The director of the European Severe Storms Laboratory (ESSL) cautions that there is a chance the European number might be on the low side.
It is important to note that the time of day when a tornado occurs has a big influence on the fatality rate. Nocturnal tornadoes are more dangerous because many people are asleep and unaware they need to be seeking a safe location. While the greater tornado threat for this particular event exists during the daytime hours, there is still the possibility for a few rotating storms through the evening hours.
The weather service in New Orleans said that a reliable means of receiving severe weather warnings is one of the most important features of severe weather safety plans.
At least 50 homes were damaged or destroyed in Lamar County, Texas, as of Friday evening, according to the sheriff’s office.
Multiple communities throughout Louisiana reported destruction, with roofs ripped off and homes splintered. As ferocious winds downed power lines, more than 50,000 customers were left without power in across Louisiana and Mississippi Wednesday evening, according to PowerOutage.us. That number was down to less than 15,000 early Thursday.
The National Weather Service confirmed late Friday that a tornado moving 45 mph was detected over the city of Wrightsville in Pulaski County, Arkansas, just south of Little Rock.
POWDERLY, Texas — Tornadoes tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma on Friday, killing at least one person, injuring two dozens others and leaving dozens of homes and buildings in ruins.
Two of those injured suffered critical injuries, the sheriff’s office said. Earlier Friday, a first responder was injured during the storms in the county and underwent surgery, County Constable Steven Hill told CNN.
“Search & rescue teams and generators forwarded to the Idabel area,” he sad. “Storms hit in Bryan, Choctaw, and Le Flore counties, among others. There was more flash flooding in some areas.
Residents are being urged to report storm damage online by the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.
A tornado killed in McCurtain County, Texas, the day after the Oklahoma border struck: Texarkana-Gazette reports
“There was total destruction on the south and east sides of Idabel,” Steven Carter, an emergency management coordinator for McCurtain County, told the Texarkana Gazette.
The judge declared a disaster in the area to get federal assistance and funding. Bell’s declaration said at least two dozen people were injured across the county.
One community was hit hardest, and it was Powderly, approximately 45 miles (70 kilometers) west of Idabel and 120 miles (185 kilometers) northeast of Dallas. Both Idabel and Powderly are located near the Oklahoma border.
The Lamar County Sheriff’s Office and Emergency Management said the tornado hit shortly after 4 p.m. and traveled north-northwest through the community of Powderly.
The chief of the Powderly Volunteer Fire Department, Randi Johnson, told The Paris News newspaper that she was aware of injuries, but wasn’t aware anyone had been killed.
European Russia, which is the part of the country west of 58 degrees East, tops the list with 86 tornadoes a year. Germany comes in second with an average 28 tornadoes annually.
The topography in Alabama and other Southern states often includes rolling hills, plateaus, and many more trees than the Plains states like Kansas, Texas, and Nebraska, where a tornado often can be seen from miles away. The more likely a tornado is to be spotted, the quicker it can be reported, which in turn allows for more time for people to seek shelter.
“The basic ingredients for severe thunderstorms that can make tornadoes are warm, moist air near the ground, relatively dry, cool air aloft (about 10,000 to 30,000 feet), and horizontal winds in the environment the storm forms in that increase as you go from the ground up and change direction with height, blowing from the equator near the ground and from the west aloft,” says Dr. Harold Brooks, senior scientist with the NOAA National Severe Storms Laboratory.
Low pressure systems in the US pull warm, moist air from the Gulf of Mexico and cool, dry air aloft from the Rocky Mountains or the High Desert in the southwest. The states that fall in between those two regions are the ideal spots for severe weather to start.
Tornadoes are not limited to the Northern Hemisphere. Australia has dozens every year, and South Africa also reports annual occurrences. South America, much like other continents, has its own tornado hotspot, known as “pasillo de los tornados.” This tornado corridor includes Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, and a portion of Brazil.
The high population density over Belgium, the Netherlands, and northern Germany is associated with the peak density of tornado reports, according to a study.
The study also reports that thunderstorms are twice as frequent over the United States, with as many as four times more storm reports, compared to Europe.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in New Zealand says tornadoes are rare there. New Zealand has around seven to 10 moderate to strong tornado events a year.
A severe weather system that has ripped through the southern part of the US has left a trail of damage, killing at least three people and injuring dozens of others.
Additionally, a boy and his mother were found dead after a tornado destroyed their home Tuesday in the northwestern Louisiana community of Keithville, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office said. The mother and son’s bodies were found hours apart, far from where their house once stood, officials said.
According to the Mayor, there were 5000 structures damaged when a tornado hit Gretna across the river from New Orleans.
“It’s the worst damage I’ve seen in 17 years,” Nolan told CNN, describing seeing mobile homes lifted from their axles and frames and in some cases carried a quarter of a mile away.
A tornado knocked out power and destroyed buildings in Wayne, Oklahoma, after a tornado hit Decatur, Blue Ridge, Texas, and the Northern High Plains
Nolan said that many people were injured while traveling in cars in the early morning hours.
Meanwhile, nearly 10 million people – largely in the north-central US – are under winter weather warnings or advisories, with blowing snow and power outages a key concern. 6 million people in the northeast will be under winter storm watches on Wednesday.
Freezing rain and sleet are expected to continue across the Plains and then shift into the Upper Midwest through Wednesday, again making travel dangerous.
The storms brought down power lines and caused destruction in Decatur and Blue Ridge, Texas, as well as Wayne, Oklahoma.
No injuries were reported after a confirmed tornado knocked out power and damaged homes and other structures in Wayne, Oklahoma.
The pair were in the kitchen closet. The only noises I heard was whistling, and my boyfriend looked outside the window. I saw my roof cave in and my house went dark after I saw the tornado, but he did not see it.
Travel on snow-covered roads in the Northern and Central High Plains is expected to be dangerous because of the strong gusts of wind.
The one-in-five-year storm that hit parts of Nebraska Tuesday is expected to stay in the area through the end of the week, according to the NWS metrologist.
Wind, hail and storms in the Rapid City area of South Dakota, and northern St. Bernard Parish, Georgia, are expected to be mildly severe on Thursday
Schools in the Rapid City area of South Dakota will be closed on Wednesday due to the snow, the school district said on Facebook.
The east and west lanes of I-90 were closed from Rapid City to the Wyoming state line due to the cold weather.
The deaths attributed to storm-related events include a 56-year-old woman who died after a tornado hit her home in the Killona area in St. Charles Parish, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
More than 2 million people were under a tornado watch in southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southwest Georgia until 1 a.m. CST Thursday. Several tornadoes are still likely as well as quarter sized hail and powerful wind gusts up to 65 mph.
For Thursday, the storms are expected to weaken slightly, but there is a risk for severe weather for much of Florida, coastal Georgia and coastal Carolinas. Cities like Tampa, Orlando, Jacksonville, Savannah and Charleston could see damaging winds, large hail and isolated tornadoes, Shackelford said.
The wind broke my back door, all of a sudden. We could hear glass popping all around us after the lights went off.
She says she and her daughter crawled down a hallway as glass shattered around them and water leaked through the roof. They were able to take shelter in their bathroom.
We got in the tub and hugged each other. We were just praying and I was calling on Jesus. Her family survived the storm but were left with damage to their home.
In the Algiers area of New Orleans, four residents were taken to area hospitals as the storm battered the area on the west bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of the New Orleans Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness told CNN. Arnold said at least one house collapsed in the area and businesses in the area have been impacted.
In St. Bernard Parish, officials reported “major damage” to Arabi, where a tornado wreaked havoc, leaving much of the area without power.
The St. Bernard Parish Sheriff said that search and rescue efforts would continue throughout the night. No serious injuries or deaths have been reported despite ten people being rescued due to the weather.
On the impact of tornadoes in New Iberia: Cindy DeLucca Hernandez and her son, L.A. Laseter
Cindy DeLucca Hernandez thought she could beat the storm while driving home after picking up her 16-year-old son from school. But on the journey, she found herself facing a tornado.
She said that they saw debris and she put her car in reverse so that she wouldn’t get hit by it. Hernandez and her son made it home safe.
“Power lines down, homes severely damaged, rooftops ripped off,” he said in a video shared online describing the scene. “It is an extensive damage scene and a long path of destruction here on the west bank.”
Police captain Leland Laseter said on Facebook that the medical center sustained a lot of damage. CNN reached out to the medical center.
The New Iberia Police Department reported on Facebook that two tornadoes touched down in the city, with several homes damaged and reports of people trapped in the Southport Subdivision.