Families shattered by tornadoes in Louisiana and Mississippi

KEITHVILLE, Louisiana (AP) — A storm system that spawned dozens of reported tornadoes from east Texas to the Florida Panhandle was all but done with the South on Thursday after killing at least three people and uprooting families across Louisiana, where some homes were blown into pieces.

Elsewhere, heavy snow and high winds meant more blizzards in the northern Midwest from the Dakotas through Michigan, and more ice and snow causing trouble in places from the Appalachians through New England.

The National Weather Service can take days to confirm whether destructive winds were in fact tornadoes, but the impact was clear in places like Caddo Parish, Louisiana, where a man went out for groceries and returned to discover his mobile home was gone, and with it, his wife and son.

“You go to search a house and the house isn't even there, so where do you search?” Governor John Bel Edwards said as he toured the mile-long (1.6-kilometre) path of destruction in rural Keithville, south of Shreveport.

The body of 8-year-old Nikolus Little was found in the woods. The body of his mother, Yoshiko A Smith, 30, was discovered later, under storm debris. “He just went to go shopping for his family, came home and the house was gone,” Caddo Parish Sheriff's Sergeant. Casey Jones said.

Another Keithville man, William Walls, said a tornado picked up his home and tossed it into his brother's house next door as he found himself stuck outside on his brother's back porch. Videos he posted on Facebook show the shredded remains.

“This is my house,” Walls said. “I watched it pick my trailer up and throw it into there.”

An outpouring of support was evident in Union Parish, near the Arkansas line, where a gymnasium was busy with volunteers and survivors going through stacks of donated clothing. Farmerville Mayor John Crow said an apartment complex where 50 families lived was badly damaged, a neighbouring trailer park with about 10 homes was wiped out, and about 30 homes were damaged along nearby Lake D'Arbonne.

Other possible twisters struck Jefferson and St Bernard parishes — including areas badly damaged by a March tornado.

New Orleans emergency director Collin Arnold said business and residences in the city suffered significant wind damage, largely on the river's west bank. One home collapsed, injuring four people. “The last word we had is that they were stable,” Arnold said.

Five others were injured in New Iberia, Louisiana, where a possible twister smashed the windows of Iberia Medical Center, the hospital said.

About 10,000 customers remained without power in Louisiana, and more than 100,000 lost electricity in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, according to poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outages. 

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