3 dead as suspected twisters, other storms batter the South

Three people are confirmed dead and several others have been injured as powerful storms smashed into buildings, downed trees and left a trail of destruction around the Deep South on Monday.

One person was killed in a suspected tornado strike on a Louisiana home, and two others were confirmed dead after another storm hit around a community about 55 miles west of the north Alabama city of Huntsville.

Two people were killed and at least four others were injured when another apparent tornado smashed into Town Creek, Alabama, the community’s police chief, Jerry Garrett, told a news conference late Monday.

Officials there said houses or mobiles were destroyed.

Details remained skethcy on the extent of damages as darkness and downed trees and lines hampered the work of first responders.

The storms triggered multiple tornado watches and warnings over a span of several hours Monday. Elsewhere, some cities opened shelters as a cold front collided with warmer air over northern Gulf Coast states and temperatures were expected to plunge. The National Weather Service said the severe weather threat could last into the early hours Tuesday.

The Louisiana death Monday was attributed to an apparent tornado that struck a residential area in Vernon Parish, but details were not immediately available, said Chief Deputy Calvin Turner. He said authorities feared others could be hurt in the area since crews were still trying to reach hard-hit areas where downed trees and power lines blocked roads.

“We’ve got damage at lots of places. We’ve got a church where the fellowship hall is torn all to pieces. Some homes are hit. Right now we’re having trouble just getting to places because of trees that are down,” Turner said.

In nearby Alexandria, Louisiana, about 200 miles northwest of New Orleans, the storm left roads impassable and destroyed a car lot, said Capt. Phillip Jordan of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s

Office.

Children in a church school were moved to the church before the tornado ripped off the school’s roof, said Cpl. Wade Bourgeois, spokesman for the Alexandria Police Department. Among the hardesthit spots was the Johnny Downs Sports Complex, which he said may have suffered “total damage.”

“Fortunately we have no reports of any deaths or serious injuries,” he said of the Alexandria area.

Bourgeois said some mobile homes and a few houses were damaged. Downed power lines left people stuck in homes or other buildings until rescuers could reach them, Bourgeois said.

“They weren’t pinned or dangerously trapped,” he said.

Meteorologist Donald Jones of the National Weather Service office in Lake Charles said it appeared the twister that hit part of Alexandria also struck near the town of DeRidder on an “absolutely ridiculous” path estimated at 63 miles (101 kilometers) long.

“I don’t know what our records for the longest total in this area is, but that’s got to be pretty damn close to it,” he said.

Jones added storm surveyors would later have to confirm whether the storm went the entire distance along the ground or touched down in spots along the way.

Three people were injured, at least one of them very seriously, by an apparent tornado that hit Amite County, Mississippi, Monday afternoon, county emergency director Grant McCurley said.

“We’ve got multiple houses with severe damage and a few houses that are completely destroyed,” he said. The number wasn’t known Monday night because crews couldn’t get to them all — downed trees tangled with power lines blocked county roads and state highways, he said.

That tornado cell sprang up in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana and went through Washington Parish on its way into Mississippi, said meteorologist Phil Grigsby of the National Weather Service office in Slidell.