Two people have been killed and dozens injured after severe storms spawning tornadoes barrelled through Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma.
A young boy was found dead in Keithville, Louisiana, on Tuesday after a tornado touched down, the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office reported.
The child’s body was discovered in a wooded area of the Pecan Farms subdivision where his home had been destroyed. His mother was initially missing but her body was later found by sheriff’s deputies under debris and one street over from her demolished home.
The child’s father had reported them missing. “We couldn’t even find the house that he was describing with the address. Everything was gone,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator told Shreveport TV station KSLA.
First responders were continuing to search the area for unknown victims, the sheriff’s office said, but no one else was reported missing as a result of the storm. Several structures were damaged, and electrical lines and trees knocked down. One woman was transported to a local hospital with unknown injuries.
In Farmerville, Louisiana, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) to the east of Keithville, about 20 people were taken to a hospital, some with critical injuries, after a tornado caused major damage to mobile homes and an apartment complex, the Union Parish Sheriff’s Office told Monroe TV station KNOE.
The destructive storm continued its path across the US on Wednesday where more severe weather was expected in the South, and potentially additional tornadoes along the central Gulf Coast, including New Orleans and southern Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.
On Tuesday, five tornadoes were confirmed across north Texas based on video and eyewitness reports, but potentially a dozen may have occurred, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth reported.
Dozens of homes and businesses were damaged by the line of thunderstorms, and several people were injured in the suburbs and counties stretching north of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. More than 1,000 flights into and out of area airports were delayed and over 100 were canceled Tuesday, according to the tracking service FlightAware.
There were also blizzard-like conditions on the Great Plains with warnings stretching from Montana into western Nebraska and Colorado.
The National Weather Service said as much as 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow was possible in some areas of western South Dakota and northwestern Nebraska. Winds of more than 50 mph (80 kph) at times would make it impossible to see outdoors in Nebraska, officials said.
With Associated Press
