a The massive and volatile storm system that tore through the United States killed at least three people in Louisiana, triggering tornadoes that battered the state from north to south, including the New Orleans area where memories of Hurricane Ida in 2021 and Hurricane Mars in March still linger.
Elsewhere, the massive system has dumped blizzard-like conditions on the Great Plains.
Many injuries have been reported across Louisiana by authorities, and more than 40,000 power outages statewide as of Wednesday night.
Severe storms headed east on Wednesday after a mother and her son were killed in the northwestern part of the state the day before. The system emerged from a tornado suspected of killing a woman Wednesday in St. Charles Parish in southeastern Louisiana and another that struck parts of New Orleans and neighboring Jefferson and St. Bernard parishes — including areas hit hard by the March hurricane.
Forecasters said the severe threat of more tornadoes would continue through the night in parts of Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
New Orleans emergency director Colin Arnold said businesses and residences in the city suffered significant wind damage, largely on the west bank of the Mississippi River. One house collapsed. He said four people were injured there, adding: “Our last word is that they are in a stable condition.”
Similar damage was reported nearby.
“Many homes and businesses sustained catastrophic damage,” the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office said in a statement from the large suburb west of New Orleans. Among the severely damaged buildings was the Mayor’s Office Training Academy building.
In St. Bernard Parish — where the March tornado wreaked havoc — Sheriff Jamie Pullman said the most recent tornado damage covered nearly 2 miles (3.2 kilometers). Archdiocese President Jay McInnes said the damage was less than in the March hurricane, although many roofs were blown or damaged.
A woman was found dead there, authorities said in St. Charles Parish, west of New Orleans, after a suspected tornado on Wednesday struck the community of Kelowna along the Mississippi River, damaging homes. They added that eight people were taken to hospitals with injuries.
“She was out of the house, so we don’t know exactly what happened,” St. Charles Parish Commander Greg Champagne said of the murdered woman. “There was debris everywhere. She could have been hit. We don’t know for sure. But this was a very horrible, violent tornado.”
About 280 miles (450 kilometers) in northern Louisiana, it took hours for authorities to find the bodies of a mother and her missing child after a tornado ripped through their mobile home Tuesday in Kitville, just south of Shreveport.
“You go house hunting and the house isn’t there, so where are you looking?” Noting the challenge emergency responders faced as he navigated a mile-long (1.6-kilometer) trail of destruction in rural Keithville, Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters. He issued the emergency declaration earlier today.
The body of 8-year-old Nicholas Little was found late Tuesday night in some woods and the body of his mother, Yoshiko Smith, 30, was found in the wreckage of the storm early Wednesday, the Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said.
Caddo Parish Sheriff Sgt. Casey Jones said the boy’s father had gone grocery shopping before the storm. “He just went shopping for his family, came home and went home,” said Jones.
Storms hit Louisiana from north to south. In Union Parish, near the Arkansas line, Farmerville Mayor John Crow said a tornado on Tuesday night severely damaged an apartment complex where 50 families lived, destroying an adjacent trailer park of about 10 homes. “It happened quickly,” Crowe said Wednesday, adding that about 30 homes sustained damage along nearby Lake Darbonne.
A suspected tornado reported Wednesday in New Iberia, southwest Louisiana, damaged several buildings at the New Iberia Medical Center, hospital officials said, with five people reporting minor injuries.
In neighboring Rankin County, Mississippi, a suspected tornado destroyed four large chicken houses, one of which contained 5,000 roosters, Sheriff Brian Bailey said. Mobile homes in a park in Sharkey County, Mississippi, were reduced to shredded debris.
The storm began its cross-country journey dumping heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada. Damage followed Tuesday as thunderstorms from the storm swept through Texas. Police spokeswoman Amanda McNew said at least five people were injured in the Grapevine suburb of Dallas.
Forecasters now expect the vast system to cripple the upper Midwest with ice, rain, and snow for days, as well as move into the central Appalachians and the Northeast. The National Weather Service issued a winter storm advisory from Wednesday night through Friday afternoon, depending on the timing of the storm. Residents from West Virginia to Vermont have been asked to watch for a potentially large mix of snow, ice and sleet.
“This system is noteworthy because it will affect areas all the way from California to the northeast eventually,” said meteorologist Frank Pereira of the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland.
In the Black Hills of western South Dakota, up to 2 feet (60 cm) of snow accumulated at some points. “They swept for hours on end,” said Vicki Weakley, who runs a historic hotel in the tourist and gambling town of Deadwood. Some visitors still venture out to the casinos.
Nearly 320 miles (520 kilometers) of Interstate 90 in South Dakota were closed on Wednesday, and state officials there have warned drivers to steer clear of most interstates.
In northern Minnesota, heavy, wet snow caused tree limbs to sag and made driving treacherous on Wednesday. In some areas, 6 to 8 inches (15-20 centimeters) of snow had accumulated, Metzel Levins meteorologist with Met Office Ketzel Levens in Duluth said.
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McGill reported from New Orleans. Associated Press writer Stephen Groves in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Jimmy Stengel in Dallas; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Jill Blade in Little Rock, Arkansas; Julie Walker in New York; Sam Metz in Salt Lake City; Trisha Ahmed in Minneapolis; Jesse Bedine in Denver; Margery Peck in Omaha, Nebraska; Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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