Today's Edition
NEW ORLEANS (AP)
The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur battered parts of the southeastern United States with drenching rains and strong wind on Thursday, tearing through buildings, flooding homes and launching water rescues along the Gulf Coast.
Severe weather also pummeled parts of the Midwest, where a separate line of strong storms knocked down structures and left tens of thousands of residents without power.
Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, and although it quickly downgraded within a day of forming, the lingering system created dangerous conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi.
In one rural Louisiana parish, more than 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours and most of that soaking came on Thursday, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.
It flooded at least 200 homes in Avoyelles Parish, about 113 kilometers northwest of the state capital, Louisiana state Rep. Daryl Deshotel said.
"Even by this region’s standards, that’s catastrophic rain,” Jones said.
Thirty homes below the Anchor Lake dam in southern Mississippi were being evacuated as a precaution due to concerns that rising waters could overwhelm the spillways and compromise the structure, Reeves said. Residents in the area were being encouraged to seek higher ground.
The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue crews, officials said.
One tornado had been confirmed in Avoyelles Parish in central Louisiana, along with three others near New Orleans, the weather service said. Louisana Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency for some storm-hit areas, and the town of Cottonport in Avoyelles Parish said it was turning off water service overnight "to manage our resources and allow our system to recover.”
It urged residents to limit water use and to fill pots and other containers before the water was shut off.
Ahead of the storm, police prepared boats and set up barricades in flood-prone areas. They also opened sandbag distribution sites across Louisiana. Just across the Mississippi River in Avondale, a tornado wrecked four homes, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Rachel Strassel said.
The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, confirmed two tornadoes, including one Wednesday with maximum winds of 186.8 kmph in the Charleston area. The EF2 tornado lifted the roof off a home and flipped a semi-truck, injuring one person.
