Tornadoes and severe weather on Tuesday ripped through the US’ Gulf Coast, mangling trailers at a recreational vehicle park, ripping roofs from buildings and killing at least three people, authorities said.
One of the hardest-hit areas appeared to be a recreational vehicle park in the town of Convent, Louisiana. Two people were killed there, St James Parish Sheriff William Martin said on local television.
Authorities were still looking for people believed to be trapped under the debris, Martin said.
Photo: AP
Thirty-one people were taken to area hospitals and seven of them were in critical condition, he said.
Martin said three people were still believed to be missing but efforts to account for them were hampered because authorities did not know how many people were at the park when the storm hit or how many people were taken to hospitals in private vehicles.
In Mississippi, officials are still sorting through reports of damage to some buildings, but Lamar County Emergency Management Agency deputy director Vann Byrd said one person died in a mobile home west of Purvis.
Lamar County coroner Cody Creel said that Dale Purvis, 73, died of blunt-force trauma.
The reported tornadoes are part of a line of severe weather and storms that ripped through the region.
At least seven tornadoes hit southeast Louisiana and southwest Mississippi, US National Weather Service Louisiana office meteorologist Ken Graham said.
Reported tornadoes and severe weather caused damage in other parts of both states.
A reported tornado caused some damage, but no injuries near Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, while high winds ripped off roofs and downed trees around the greater New Orleans area.
Other suspected tornadoes were reported north of Lake Pontchartrain and west of the city in St Charles and Ascension parishes and in Prairieville, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, heavy damage was reported to some buildings, including a fitness gym.
Governors in both Louisiana and Mississippi declared states of emergency.
Speaking at the Sugar Hill RV Park trailer park in Convent, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards described the scene as a “jumbled mess.”
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