Intense Weather Sweeps Across the South, Bringing Flash Flooding and Tornadoes
Waves of intense weather were moving east across the South on Wednesday, bringing flash flooding and tornadoes along the Gulf Coast, with the potential for more destructive winds still looming, forecasters and local officials said.
In Mississippi, the severe weather follows an overnight storm that killed one person and left another injured.
A flash flood emergency was declared in the New Orleans area, where the National Weather Service said many roads in and around the city were underwater and impassable. In Slidell, La., a city northeast of New Orleans, the authorities were reporting that up to four potential tornadoes had ripped through buildings and streets. A tornado was also reported in Southeast Texas and severe weather damaged homes across several Mississippi counties.
More than a dozen flash flood warnings were issued early in the day, including one for New Orleans. Officials closed some roads in southeastern Louisiana and some roads were reported under water in Southern Mississippi. Dallas was under a flash flood warning on Wednesday afternoon.
There was a substantial risk of tornadoes in the region. Forecasters warned that more than seven million people across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida could experience extreme weather through the day.
The Storm Prediction Center issued a tornado watch for Southeast Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Southwest Georgia on Wednesday afternoon and until 8 p.m. local time, noting that “a cluster of storms are expected to move into the region through mid/late afternoon.”
Daniel Seuzeneau, the chief administrative officer for the Slidell Police Department, said that there were reports of up to four tornadoes in the city, and that the impact was widespread in a stretch of about five miles.
The damage was “extensive,” he said. Buildings, including an apartment building, were partially collapsed. Trees were down on houses, people were trapped and cars were flipped over, he said. The department had not reported any major injuries or deaths.
“We rescued about 50 people out of an apartment complex,” he said. “Usually we don’t see damage this wide and extensive unless it’s a hurricane.”
Mike Cooper, the president of St. Tammany Parish, said multiple people were injured and called the damage in Slidell “catastrophic.”
“Dozens of our neighbors and loved ones in Slidell had their lives ripped apart in seconds,” he said in a post on social media.
In Mississippi, Gov. Tate Reeves said on Wednesday that 23 homes were damaged and at least one was destroyed in Hinds, Neshoba, Warren and Yazoo Counties, according to an initial assessment. Downed trees blocked roads in Hinds and Yazoo counties.
In Yazoo County, after heavy rain, a family of four was evacuated from a house in the Eastbrook subdivision, which was downstream from a 10-acre man-made lake that was close to bursting its banks, said Jack Willingham, the county’s emergency management director.
The weather began to deteriorate before dawn, with more than a dozen tornado warnings and watches in towns from Texas to Mississippi. Early on Wednesday, a tornado struck Katy, a city west of Houston, Jeffry Evans, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Houston and Galveston, told reporters.
(A tornado warning is an urgent alert issued after a weather forecaster spots a possible tornado on a radar or a trained spotter sees a tornado. A watch means that weather conditions are favorable for one to form in an area.)
Flooding began to inundate parts of East Texas early on Wednesday. The sheriff’s office in Jasper County, Texas, said its deputies, local fire departments and emergency authorities were deployed for rescue efforts around Kirbyville, a city of more than 2,000.
Mayor Frank George of Kirbyville said the water had risen to several feet deep in some places. Across the street from where he sat in his truck was the flooded Central Baptist Church. Water skimmed the roof of a parked Lincoln Continental vehicle.
Mr. George said that, since before daylight, volunteers and a swift water team were circulating in boats, pulling stranded people out of homes.
Many more needed to be rescued, he said, and another shelter was expected to be opened. “We are getting calls as the water rises and we are expecting the water to rise,” Mr. George said in an interview.
The cluster of storms was expected to move east through the evening, with the potential to cause more tornadoes and bring widespread, damaging winds across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and southern Georgia.
Parts of Mississippi had been reeling from an overnight storm.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported that one person was killed and another was injured. At least one tornado was reported in Raymond, Miss., west of Jackson, the state capital, according to local news reports. Multiple trees and power lines were reported down across neighboring counties.
Power outages across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama affected than 200,000 customers as of Wednesday afternoon.
Derrick Bryson Taylor and Aimee Ortiz contributed reporting.
