New Orleans hit by tornado

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A tornado has touched down in New Orleans and the city’s suburbs Tuesday as part of a line of severe weather that started in Texas and Oklahoma and moved east into the Deep South.

The National Weather Service retweeted a video of the tornado in the eastern part of New Orleans that was visible in the darkened sky.

The tornado appeared to start in a New Orleans suburb and then move east across the Mississippi River into the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Bernard Parish before moving northeast.

It wasn’t immediately known whether anyone was injured. While the metropolitan region is often struck by severe weather and heavy rains, it’s rare that a tornado moves through the city.

One person was killed and more than two dozen were injured when tornadoes tore through parts of Texas and Oklahoma damaging a school, homes and businesses, before the storm system continued its destructive path Tuesday into Louisiana and Mississippi.

New Orleans television aired videos Tuesday night of an apparent tornado moving from the Algiers section of New Orleans across the Mississippi River through the Lower Ninth Ward and Arabi sections of eastern New Orleans. There were no immediate details on damage or injuries.

A large, destructive tornado struck near the east side of New Orleans on Tuesday evening, causing severe damage and killing at least one person in St. Bernard Parish. The twister was part of an outbreak of severe thunderstorms across the Deep South and followed a siege of tornadoes in Texas on Monday.

A 26-year-old man was reported dead after first responders found him outside his home here in Arabi, La., around 10 p.m. local time, according to John Lane, a spokesman for St. Bernard Parish President Guy McInnis.

Other residents were hospitalized with injuries that are not life-threatening, Lane told The Washington Post early Wednesday.

Arabi, between Chalmette and the Lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, was hit hardest, he said.

“There was severe devastation,” Lane said. “We have houses that have been completely flattened. We have houses that have been moved off [their] foundations and suffered severe structural damages.”

McInnis urged residents, during a news conference Tuesday, to contact his office before attempting to rescue neighbors. He witnessed emergency responders save a girl who was trapped inside her home’s ventilation system, he said. The girl’s family had been searching for her before firefighters arrived, McInnis added.

Lane said he has not seen this kind of devastation since Hurricane Katrina, which made landfall here along the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005. Large swaths of New Orleans were devastated by Katrina, he told The Post, but what happened Tuesday night “is much more localized — two different types of devastation, but nevertheless, this is significant.”

The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning southwest of New Orleans at 7 p.m. Central time. Rotation tightened markedly around 7:20 p.m., just after the warning was extended into the city of New Orleans.

At 7:22 p.m., the possible tornado was entering neighborhoods along Redwood Drive in the Timberlane area. The tornado was described as “large” and was confirmed by a National Weather Service employee at 7:25 p.m., around which time video of it was being broadcast live on television stations across the New Orleans area.

Video broadcast on TV news stations depicted horizontal vortices shedding off the main trunk-like vortex of the tornado — a sign of intense vertical motion and winds approaching or exceeding 130 mph.

The tornado was plowing through Arabi at 7:29 p.m. after having crossed the Mississippi River.

A number of neighborhoods suffered heavy damage, with some homes destroyed. A “debris ball” appeared on radar at 7:32 p.m. Then the tornado headed into New Orleans East and likely weakened.

Tornadoes are not uncommon in New Orleans. Since 1950, seven significant tornadoes have tracked through the area.

Initial social media videos indicate damage in at least the EF2 range, with an EF3 tornado or more possible. The National Weather Service in Slidell, La., said it would dispatch personnel to survey the damage.