New Orleans Takes Another Weather Event Hit (1 Viewer)

The_Doc_Man

Immoderate Moderator
Staff member
Local time
Today, 09:58
Joined
Feb 28, 2001
Messages
26,999
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.
 

Steve R.

Retired
Local time
Today, 10:58
Joined
Jul 5, 2006
Messages
4,617
Good to hear you are OK. Three years ago we had a tornado (a very small one) pass through our backyard. No damage to our house, but the yard was an absolute mess. The surprising thing, we did not hear anything. Our ears did "pop" though. The neighbors behind our house had a boat trailer (with boat) flipped over and it landed on top of their truck. We may be getting your "left-over" weather here tomorrow.
 

conception_native_0123

Well-known member
Local time
Today, 09:58
Joined
Mar 13, 2021
Messages
1,826
For those that might be concerned, my home was not affected by the tornado.
glad to hear richard. I wasn't concerned, but thought I would comment on it anyway. :)

a while back we had what was known around here as a "derecho". a wind storm that was a powerful as a tornado. It leveled cedar rapids pretty good.
 

The_Doc_Man

Immoderate Moderator
Staff member
Local time
Today, 09:58
Joined
Feb 28, 2001
Messages
26,999
I have heard of a derecho but never actually have been in or around one. I've been accused of being a big wind now and then, but this event was legitimately a storm. This morning the local news agencies confirmed one death.
 

Pat Hartman

Super Moderator
Staff member
Local time
Today, 10:58
Joined
Feb 19, 2002
Messages
42,970
I've been too close to a tornado twice in my life. Once on my way home from work in Nashville a couple of miles off to my right (south) was a perfectly shaped black funnel cloud that looked like it was heading for my neighborhood. I was close so I decided to go home and save my husband. He was in the front yard with my camera taking pictures of the huge hailstones when I drove in the driveway and screamed at him to get in the basement. The funnel passed less than a quarter mile away and we went out and looked as the wind abated and saw two funnel clouds tearing up houses in a neighborhood a little closer to the lake than we were. The other one was in downtown Bridgeport CT of all places. I never saw the funnel but we all ran to the shop to get away from the windows when we heard the wind.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom