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- Today, 05:16
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- Feb 28, 2001
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Tonight at about 7:30 PM CDT, the New Orleans suburban community was hit by a serious tornado. As of this writing it is too soon to know the full extent of the damage but many buildings - residential, commercial, industrial - are known to have been leveled. Power poles snapped, cars flipped... too soon to know about deaths but with that much damage it would be hard to be sure until daylight searches can be conducted. For those that might be concerned, my home was not affected by the tornado. We got some brisk winds and some rain, but no major tree damage in our little neighborhood near the south shore of Lake Ponchartrain. No utility damage, lights blinked a couple of times but stayed on.
The presence of a tornado on the ground in the area south and east of New Orleans was confirmed by posts on social media giving time and direction of view of the pix, and the local CBS outlet's weather staff caught some "hook echoes" on radar corresponding to the media pix. Surely not the same cause, but some of these buildings look like the suburban areas in the Ukraine - buildings flat down to the ground, or only one wall section standing with no roof. Our senior local meteorologist suggests two factors - wide-spread damage and long ground time - that might make the tornado count as EF3 or higher. This was the same storm that went through Texas yesterday. It still had some nastiness left in it for us.
We were several miles from the communities of Arabi and the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward (which was ground zero during Hurricane Katrina). Those areas do not look so good tonight. There IS some good news in that at least the storm front has now moved through and left the area. Tomorrow should be clear with <3% rain chance, and the same is predicted for at least a week. We will probably see some pix on the morning news once the sun comes up and helicopters or drones can do serious aerial surveys.
The presence of a tornado on the ground in the area south and east of New Orleans was confirmed by posts on social media giving time and direction of view of the pix, and the local CBS outlet's weather staff caught some "hook echoes" on radar corresponding to the media pix. Surely not the same cause, but some of these buildings look like the suburban areas in the Ukraine - buildings flat down to the ground, or only one wall section standing with no roof. Our senior local meteorologist suggests two factors - wide-spread damage and long ground time - that might make the tornado count as EF3 or higher. This was the same storm that went through Texas yesterday. It still had some nastiness left in it for us.
We were several miles from the communities of Arabi and the New Orleans Lower 9th Ward (which was ground zero during Hurricane Katrina). Those areas do not look so good tonight. There IS some good news in that at least the storm front has now moved through and left the area. Tomorrow should be clear with <3% rain chance, and the same is predicted for at least a week. We will probably see some pix on the morning news once the sun comes up and helicopters or drones can do serious aerial surveys.