Feb 7 (Reuters) - A tornado tore through New Orleans and surrounding parts of Louisiana on Tuesday, injuring at least 11 people and causing severe damage to homes and businesses, the National Weather Service and local media said.

The storm hit New Orleans at about 2 p.m. EST, according to the weather service’s website. It said numerous buildings and homes were reported destroyed in the city and in suburban areas of Baton Rouge.

At least 11 people were hurt in the twister, the Times-Picayune newspaper said.

Photos and videos on social media showed the storm roaring across highways and streets, tearing down trees, power lines and homes.

Nearly 50,000 customers were without power in Louisiana, with more than 10,000 of them located in New Orleans, according to Entergy New Orleans spokeswoman Kacee Kirschvink.

The National Weather Service cautioned residents to remain sheltered to avoid flying debris and tornado-damaged areas.

“Keep the roads clear for emergency responders. Lots of downed power lines and debris,” the weather service’s New Orleans officer said in a posting on Twitter. (Reporting by Gina Cherelus in New York)</s>iStock/Thinkstock(NEW ORLEANS) — Nine tornadoes were reported Tuesday in Louisiana and Mississippi — four of which have been confirmed — damaging property, injuring at least 31 people and prompting Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to declare a state of emergency in the state.

In addition to New Orleans, which also declared a state of emergency, tornadoes were reported in Baton Rouge, Donaldsonville, Ponchatoula and Killian, according to ABC News meteorologist Melissa Griffin.

Tornado watches were in effect for parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle. The tornado watch in Louisiana and Mississippi expired after 2 p.m., when the storms moved east, Griffin said. The tornado watch in Alabama and Florida is set to expire at 6 p.m. Severe storms are expected in cities such as Gulfport, Biloxi, Mobile and Pensacola.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said a serious tornado hit Chef Menteur Highway and traveled there for about two miles. Landrieu described the damage it caused as “devastating” and that it looked “like an elephant stomping on your house.”

Approximately 9,400 Orleans Parish residents are currently without power, the mayor said. Crews are working around the clock and expect to have all power restored in three to five days.

No deaths have been reported, but of the 31 injuries reported in New Orleans, at least six were considered moderate to severe according to Landrieu. Authorities will continue to survey the damage in the next several days.

NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans was impacted by a tornado, the agency said Tuesday. All 3,500 employees at the facility were accounted for, with five sustaining minor injuries. The facility will remain closed on Wednesday, as emergency personnel continue damage assessments on multiple buildings which were damaged, including the main manufacturing building, which sustained roof damage.

NASA posted the following video to YouTube of the tornado near the facility.

President Donald Trump tweeted Tuesday night, “Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone in southeastern Louisiana affected by today’s severe tornadoes.”

There could still be isolated severe storms in North and South Carolina.

As of Tuesday morning, at least 23 U.S. states were under winter weather alerts, and a tornado watch has been issued for parts of the Southeast as most of the country braces for severe weather this week.

“We are in a very active weather pattern all across the country, from California to New York,” ABC News senior meteorologist Max Golembo said.

An atmospheric river, which draws massive amounts of water vapor from the Pacific Ocean, has taken aim at California, where the National Weather Service has issued flash flood and flood watches through Friday.

Copious rainfall is in the forecast for the West Coast until the end of the week, potentially bringing floods, mudslides and debris flows. ABC News’ weather team predicts more than a half a foot of rain in Central to Northern California over the next several days. Additional rain is expected for Portland, Oregon, and Seattle.

“California will see waves of moisture on and off through Friday,” Golembo said.

Meanwhile, thunderstorms and damaging winds are expected to rattle Southern states, from the Gulf Coast to the Ohio Valley. The National Weather System has issued a tornado watch for portions of southern Louisiana, southern Mississippi and other parts of the region’s coast until 2 p.m. local time.

“Severe storms are firing up already in Louisiana and Mississippi,” Golembo said. “Damaging winds are the biggest threat this morning.”

Northeastern states can expect to see rain, snow and ice this week, according to ABC News meteorologists. The first of two storms arrives Wednesday, bringing rain and ice for much of the region, with potential snowfall in Boston and other parts of New England.

The icy weather moved through the Hudson Valley into southern New England Wednesday morning. By the afternoon, the snow and ice in Boston will transition to heavy rain, with some snow and ice lingering in New England and the upper Hudson Valley near Albany, New York.

ABC News meteorologists said a second storm will move into the Northeast on Thursday morning, bringing mostly snow to New York City and Boston. Heavy snowfall is in the forecast until Thursday afternoon. Some weather models are showing snow farther south in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

“This could be a plowed event for major Northeast cities,” Golembo said. “Stay tuned. This is a changing forecast.”</s>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Brittany Ross remembers she was savoring the smell of her aunt’s simmering white beans when the storm that injured about 40 people in southeastern Louisiana hit.

“The place started shaking, kind of twisting,” she said Tuesday as she stood amid the wreckage at a small trailer park in eastern New Orleans.

The tornado, she said, lifted the trailer off the ground and slammed it down.

Ross, 26, her aunt and two others crawled out of the wreckage amid flying debris — uninjured, but suddenly homeless.

The tornadoes that struck Ross’ home and other parts of southeastern Louisiana destroyed homes and businesses, flipped cars and trucks, and left thousands without power, but no deaths were reported, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

The governor took an aerial tour and made a disaster declaration before meeting with officials in New Orleans. The worst damage was in the same 9th Ward that was so heavily flooded in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Edwards, a Democrat, said he was heartbroken to see some of the same people suffering again, and promised that the state will provide the affected residents with the resources they need as quickly as possible.

He said seven parishes were hit by tornadoes in an afternoon of tumultuous weather across southeastern Louisiana.

The storm ripped apart homes, toppled a gas station canopy, snapped tall power poles and flipped a food truck upside-down. It left shards of metal hanging from trees, and trapped a truck driver as power lines wrapped around his cab.

The wall of severe weather also delivered heavy rain and hail to Mississippi and Alabama.

Artie Chaney said her granddaughter had just pulled up to the house from school.

“(Hail) rocks were falling on the car, and I was looking out the side door and saw the clouds moving fast. I heard this sound. We looked up in the air and we could see debris in the distance and before we knew it, it was just barreling down on us,” Chaney recalled.

“We ran in the house; the lights went out. We ran down the hallway to the middle bedroom and then we just heard glass shattering. We thought we weren’t gonna make it. It seemed like it lasted a long time. It was a horrible experience. We were just so grateful to God that nobody was hurt.”

Chaney said, her voice breaking as she looked at the damage, “We went through all of Katrina, with no damage. I didn’t think I’d be starting over again.”

The Baton Rouge area also got hit. Ascension Parish Sheriff’s spokeswoman Allison Hudson said three people suffered minor injuries and several homes and buildings were damaged in the historic part of Donaldsonville, about 20 miles southwest of the capital.

In Killian, just east of Baton Rouge, the mayor said several houses were destroyed and several others damaged, but an elderly couple suffered the only injuries he knew of: one, a broken leg; the other, a broken arm.

“How you manage to get blown completely across the street with cinderblocks flying and no worse than a couple broken limbs — apparently the good Lord was looking after them,” Mayor Craig McGehee said.

An official at NASA’s Michoud facility in New Orleans said it suffered some structural damage but the deep-space equipment being built there does not appear to have been harmed.

Steve Doering said the hardware and tooling used in the Orion and Space Launch System projects were not damaged, but Michoud will have to make a “significant effort” to cover everything up so any subsequent bad weather doesn’t affect it while the building’s roof and walls are repaired.

Two Mississippi counties reported wind damage, but no injuries, from suspected tornadoes. Other areas of Mississippi saw heavy rain and hail from the storm system that spawned multiple tornadoes in Louisiana.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Powerful thunderstorms were lighting up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as severe storms brought hail, high winds and possible twisters to the New Orleans area.

Radar indicated a large tornado near the city’s Lakefront Airport, and another large tornado was reported near Madisonville in St. Tammany Parish, north of Lake Pontchartrain, the National Weather Service said.

In nearby Livingston Parish, sheriff’s office spokeswoman Lori Steele said officials were investigating wind damage reported in the town of Killian on Tuesday morning. Officials were working to confirm two possible tornado sightings in the area

One of the warnings described a “large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” twister south of Hammond, Louisiana.

The national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday. In Louisiana, tornado watches covered New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In Mississippi, a tornado watch covered the southern half of the state. In Alabama, the city of Mobile was in the storm’s path.</s>Tornadoes touched down in southern Louisiana Tuesday, wiping houses from their foundations and downing power lines as severe weather moved across the region.

At least three tornadoes have touched down — one in the eastern part of New Orleans, another near the town of Donaldsonville and another in the town of Killian, said Danielle Manning, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

They have heard reports of injuries but nothing that has been confirmed yet, she said.

Local media showed images of some severely damaged buildings in eastern New Orleans with power lines strewn across the road.

At least seven homes have been damaged in Livingston Parish, northwest of New Orleans, said Brandi Janes, the deputy emergency preparedness director.

"Two of them are completely gone... all the way to the ground," she said.

Janes said she knows of two injuries in the parish, both minor. She didn't immediately have any information on whether the homes that were destroyed were occupied when the storm struck.

They are working to get trees out of roadways and with the Red Cross to get help to damaged areas, she said.

The tornadoes are part of a wall of bad weather moving across the Deep South that lit up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as severe storms brought hail, high winds and twisters to the New Orleans area.

One of the warnings described a "large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly" twister south of Hammond, Louisiana.

The national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday. In Louisiana, tornado watches covered New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In Mississippi, a tornado watch covered the southern half of the state. In Alabama, the city of Mobile was in the storm's path.</s>NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Officials say tornadoes that struck parts of southeastern Louisiana injured about 40 people, destroyed homes and businesses, flipped cars and trucks, and left thousands without power, but no deaths were reported.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards took an aerial tour and made a disaster declaration before meeting with officials in New Orleans. The worst damage was in the same 9th Ward that was so heavily flooded in 2005’s Hurricane Katrina.

Edwards says he was heartbroken to see some of the same people suffering again, and promised that the state will provide the affected residents with the resources they need as quickly as possible.

He says seven parishes were hit by tornadoes.

The wall of severe weather also delivered heavy rain and hail to Mississippi and Alabama.</s>At least seven confirmed tornadoes hit southeast Louisiana Tuesday, causing major damage as a wave of severe thunderstorms swept through the region.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said at a news conference at least seven confirmed tornadoes touched down in the state, including two in Livingston Parish, and one in six other parishes. He declared a state of emergency in the wake of the storms.

Edwards said while there was a wide range of destruction, “the Lord has blessed us with not a single fatality at this time.”

There are at least 20 people reported injured statewide, according to Edwards.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said the city suffered “a terrible blow,” and that the tornado that struck the east side of the city traveled around two miles and affected a half-mile swath of land.

“I want to think we’ve been through many things together, and we will get through this together with prayers,” he told reporters.

The large tornado in New Orleans touched down northeast of downtown along Interstate 10 and Chef Menteur Highway, Fox 8 reported.

Images from the area showed severely damaged buildings with downed power lines strewn across the road.

Over 15,000 customers are without power in several areas of the city and surrounding area, according to Fox 8.

James Thomas, a resident of Eastern New Orleans, told the Associated Press his his whole neighborhood shows storm damage, but his house escaped the tornado.

“It’s bad. I’ve never seen it this bad,” he said. “As far as I can see, treetops are off, power lines down.”

Thomas said he saw the twister coming, grabbed his motorcycle helmet and ran into his bathroom. The room then went pitch-black, he heard hail on the window, and came outside afterward to see a damage trail or about 20 to 40 feet from his house.

NASA said in a series of tweets the tornado in Eastern New Orleans impacted the Michoud Facility, but only minor injuries were reported and personnel are being accounted for.

The onsite Michoud emergency response team is also conducting damage assessments of buildings and facilities, according to NASA.

Yoshekia Brown, who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, lost everything again on Tuesday when three-quarters of her home in New Orleans East collapsed in the storm.

Brown told the AP she was at work when she got a weather alert on her phone, looked at a weather map and realized it was affecting her neighborhood. She then drove home to check when her brother called to say, “Sister, your house is gone.”

“I lived in between two blighted properties. One of those would have been gone before my house,” Brown said. “It wasn’t real until I walked up. I can see into my living room. I can see into my front bedroom. It’s just gone. Like the movie Twister.”

Her 2-year-old son and three dogs survived the storm, and her home was insured. Brown said she’s not sure what to do next, but “something good has to come from this.”

Tornado watches covered large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and the line of severe storms prompted multiple tornado warnings.

At least seven homes were damaged in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, located northwest of New Orleans, according to Deputy Emergency Management Director Brandi Janes.

“Two of them are completely gone… all the way to the ground,” she told the AP.

Janes said she knows of two injuries in the parish, both minor, but didn’t immediately have any information on whether the homes that were destroyed were occupied when the storm struck.

The tornadoes are part of storm system moving across the Deep South that lit up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as the system brought hail, high winds and twisters to the New Orleans area.

One of the warnings described a “large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” twister south of Hammond, Louisiana.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters President Trump plans to contact officials in the hardest-hit areas.

The National Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from FOX8Live.com.</s>(CBS) — Tornadoes touched down in southern Louisiana Tuesday, wiping houses from their foundations and downing power lines a severe line of weather moving across the region.

Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency, according to a spokesperson Tuesday afternoon.

At least three tornadoes have touched down – one in the eastern part of New Orleans, another near the town of Donaldsonville and another in the town of Killian, said Danielle Manning, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

CBS affiliate WWL-TV in New Orleans reports that the National Weather Service said that the dangerous tornado was down in New Orleans East at 11:33 a.m.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said there are initial reports of dozens of minor injuries and two more serious injuries. A spokesman for the Emergency Medical Service described most of those injured Tuesday as “walking wounded,” with minor cuts and scrapes.

City officials say about 10,000 homes are without power and there are reports of gas leaks in the area.

Police Chief Michael Harrison urged people to stay off the roads and out of the affected areas. Patrols are doing house-by-house searches in affected neighborhoods to make sure no one’s trapped by falling debris or other damage, Harrison said.

Local media showed images of some severely damaged buildings in eastern New Orleans with power lines strewn across the road.

At least seven homes have been damaged, two of them completely destroyed, in Livingston Parish, northwest of New Orleans, said Brandi Janes, the deputy emergency preparedness director. She didn’t immediately have any information on whether the homes that were destroyed were occupied when the storm struck.

Authorities are working to get trees out of roadways and with the Red Cross to get help to damaged areas, Janes said.

The tornadoes are part of a wall of bad weather moving across the Deep South that lit up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as severe storms brought hail, high winds and twisters to the New Orleans area.

One of the warnings described a “large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly” twister south of Hammond, Louisiana.

The national Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday. In Louisiana, tornado watches covered New Orleans and Baton Rouge. In Mississippi, a tornado watch covered the southern half of the state. In Alabama, the city of Mobile was in the storm’s path.

Tornado survivor Sheryl McBride rushed into her bathtub when the tornado struck her home on the east side of New Orleans. She described the scene to Matthew Hinton at The New Orleans Advocate.

“As soon as I got in, stooped down, the roof came off, things started flying. I asked Jesus to cover me, don’t let me get hurt. Next thing you know, here we are,” McBride said while standing in the wreckage of her home.

She pointed out the bathtub beneath the debris.

“I thought it was the Wizard of Oz for a moment,” she said.</s>At least three confirmed tornadoes hit southern Louisiana Tuesday, causing major damage as a wave of severe thunderstorms swept through the region.

Danielle Manning, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said that one tornado touched down in the eastern part of New Orleans, while another touched down near the town of Donaldsonville and a third was reported in the town of Killian.

The large tornado in New Orleans touched down northeast of downtown along Interstate 10 and Chef Menteur Highway, Fox 8 reported.

Images from the area showed severely damaged buildings with downed power lines strewn across the road.

At least two people suffered serious injuries and about a dozen others have minor injuries, Fox 8 reported.

Fire crews are going door-to-door in the neighborhood to check for people, while utility crews are on scene responding to a number of gas leaks.

Over 15,000 customers are without power in several areas of the city and surrounding area, according to Fox 8.

James Thomas, a resident of Eastern New Orleans, told the Associated Press his his whole neighborhood shows storm damage, but his house escaped the tornado.

"It's bad. I've never seen it this bad," he said. "As far as I can see, treetops are off, power lines down."

Thomas said he saw the twister coming, grabbed his motorcycle helmet and ran into his bathroom. The room then went pitch-black, he heard hail on the window, and came outside afterward to see a damage trail or about 20 to 40 feet from his house.

NASA said in a series of tweets the tornado in Eastern New Orleans impacted the Michoud Facility, but only minor injuries were reported and personnel are being accounted for.

The onsite Michoud emergency response team is also conducting damage assessments of buildings and facilities, according to NASA.

Tornado watches covered large parts of Louisiana and Mississippi and the line of severe storms prompted multiple tornado warnings.

Officials say at least seven homes have been damaged in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, located northwest of New Orleans, according to Deputy Emergency Management Director Brandi Janes.

"Two of them are completely gone... all the way to the ground," she told the AP.

Janes said she knows of two injuries in the parish, both minor, but didn't immediately have any information on whether the homes that were destroyed were occupied when the storm struck.

The tornadoes are part of storm system moving across the Deep South that lit up radar monitors and prompting multiple tornado warnings from Louisiana to Alabama as the system brought hail, high winds and twisters to the New Orleans area.

One of the warnings described a "large, extremely dangerous and potentially deadly" twister south of Hammond, Louisiana.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters President Trump plans to contact officials in the hardest-hit areas.

The National Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma, said 2.7 million people in parts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama would be at the highest risk of severe weather on Tuesday.

In Mississippi, a tornado watch covered the southern half of the state. In Alabama, the city of Mobile was in the storm's path.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Click for more from FOX8Live.com.</s>A wall of dangerous storms is moving across the South, threatening communities in their path with high winds, severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes.

The National Weather Service warned of severe thunderstorms and hail along the Mississippi coast and issued a series of rapidly updated tornado warnings for parts of Louisiana and Mississippi.

The NWS New Orleans Office is updating its Twitter account here with information for the U.S. Gulf Coast.

Earlier today, the National Weather Service confirmed that multiple tornadoes touched down in and around New Orleans. The website for the electricity utility in New Orleans, Etergy, showed that more than 15,000 customers had lost power.

At 11:33 a.m. CT, the NWS office for New Orleans tweeted, "Dangerous tornado on the ground in New Orleans East. Take Shelter IMMEDIATELY!!!"

Images of the area published by the New Orleans Times-Picayune showed funnel clouds, hail and dark skies.

A video taken in one neighborhood showed twisted metal and downed trees, emergency vehicles and power lines crisscrossing debris.

The newspaper reported at least one injury in New Orleans East.

Outside Baton Rouge, local ABC affiliate WBRZ reported that two mobile homes were "completely gone," posting photos to Twitter of twisted metal in a tree and a toothbrush standing upright in the grass.

Homes were damaged in the city of Donaldsonville, between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, where photos shared on the official town Twitter account showed a home without a roof, and wood and metal in the road.

This is a breaking news story. As often happens in situations like these, some information reported early may turn out to be inaccurate. We'll move quickly to correct the record and will only point to the best information we have at the time.
Multiple tornadoes tear through New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and other parts of southeastern Louisiana, injuring at least 20 people; no deaths have been reported. The severe weather also delivers heavy rain and hail in Mississippi and Alabama.