At least one tornado and a powerful line of storms tore through the Deep South on Wednesday, causing “widespread and catastrophic” damage in parts of Louisiana, local officials reported.
Slidell, a city of roughly 28,000 people and set about 30 miles from New Orleans, got walloped by the severe weather Wednesday morning, according to the Slidell Police Department (SPD).
Multiple structures, including an apartment complex, sustained extensive damage from the tornado and storms, with several getting destroyed. It was unclear as of 9 p.m. local time the extent of the destruction, due to debris and downed power lines blocking roadways, SPD Sergeant Jacob Morris told Newsweek in a phone interview.
Morris said that more than 50 people had to be rescued from the rubble of the apartment complex. He said only minor injuries had been reported and that the department had not received word of any deaths linked to the extreme weather.
Slidell Police Department
Across the street from the apartments, he said, there was a contracting business with employees inside the building when it collapsed.
“They’re at a total loss,” he said. “Their building is completely devastated. They had seven employees inside who sought out shelter at the sound of the tornado and hunkered down and said some prayers and they all walked away without a single scrape. Again, their building collapsed.”
Local officials are unsure of how many tornadoes ripped through the area but said “at least” one EF-1 storm delivered widespread damage in Slidell, according to an update from the National Weather Service (NWS). An EF-1 is the second mildest tornado on a scale of EF-0 to EF-5, but packs wind speeds from 86 mph to 110 mph and can tear off exterior home doors and windows.
“Additional surveys will be needed tomorrow to assess path length, path width and max wind speeds,” the NWS said in a statement.
Morris told Newsweek that from what crews have been able to assess, the destruction “spans several miles” and the storm “packed a punch.”
Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer told local media that city residents “haven’t seen this much damage since Hurricane Katrina.”
Slidell Police Department
Morris said local officials were unable to verify exactly how long the tornado was on the ground because a community outside the city limits also reported damage.
“There were reports on multiple tornadoes all within Slidell, like two or three, maybe more, at different locations,” he said. “So, I don’t know if the tornado that devastated our community was the same for the community of St. Tammany Parish. But whether there was a single tornado versus multiple tornadoes, they came in and made a statement.”
One video shared on X, formerly Twitter, shows the interior of a building that was pounded by the storm.
The clip, shared by user crimewithbobby, pans around an office space with the windows blown out and riddled with debris.
Another X video, shared by Chris Weather Chasing, includes aerial footage of a heavily damaged building.
A video shared on X by Aaron Jayjack shows flooding and debris from the severe weather.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.