Severe weather moves through the Gulf Coast
A powerful storm system continued unleashing a barrage of severe weather across the Gulf Coast on Wednesday, knocking out power, damaging buildings and shuttering schools.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency reported that one person had died from the storms, but did not give details.
The National Weather Service reported multiple possible tornadoes across southern Louisiana, where a powerful squall line with 80 mph winds was moving east. More than 180,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power Wednesday morning, according to a USA TODAY’s database. Across Texas and Mississippi, over 90,000 utility customers reported power outages.
Monica Hernandez Melancon and her husband got a tornado warning on their phones around 6:30 a.m., just as rain and wind picked up in Sunset, Louisiana, about 70 miles west of Baton Rouge. The 60-year-old gathered the couple’s two Yorkies – Ceci and Lily – as their trailer began to tremble. Curled up in a corner, she began to pray.
“It was so scary,” she told USA TODAY. “You can hardly see anything because the rain was so dense and everything was shaking.”
After about 20 minutes, she and her husband emerged to find several trees knocked down across their 40-acre property, where they have hundreds of chickens, pigs and lambs. Their farm was not damaged and none of the animals was hurt. Melancon said in her decades living in different parts of Louisiana, she’s never experienced such a ferocious storm.
Several school districts in Louisiana and Mississippi held classes virtually or canceled sessions altogether due to the storm.
The Louisiana Division of Administration shuttered state office buildings, and officials asked people “to limit driving on the roads between 8:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.,” according to a statement from Gov. Jeff Landry.
After heavy rain, the Yazoo County, Mississippi, sheriff’s office told residents of one neighborhood to “evacuate IMMEDIATELY!!!” in a Facebook post. “The levee is about to break on the lake and the houses will flood. Please get out ASAP!!!”
The severe weather began on Monday, and led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to deploy emergency response resources to badly impacted areas of the state. On Tuesday, the governor said he had deployed additional resources throughout the state.
Hail the size of quarters and table tennis balls was reported in eastern Texas, Tennessee and Arkansas on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service. Powerful wind gusts reportedly toppled power lines and uprooted trees. In Pulaski County, Arkansas, 80-90 mph wind gusts damaged several homes.
The low pressure system is forecast to intensify, expand and track toward the northeast through the rest of the week, with moderate to heavy rainfall engulfing much of the eastern U.S., including the Mid-Atlantic, Great Lakes, Midwest and Ohio Valley regions.
Contributing: Brian Broom, Mississippi Clarion-Ledger