[StBernard] WWL.com Breaking News Alert: At least one dead, four unconfirmed tornados

[Westley Annis]

The National Weather Service has dropped severe weather watches and 
warnings for the New Orleans metro area, but not before at least four 
tornados touched down south and west of the city Tuesday afternoon, 
causing damage and at least one fatality.

It appears the most serious incident of severe weather occured in 
Independence, Tangipahoa Parish, where a woman was killed outside Lallie 
Kemp Hospital.

Hospital officials say the victim, identified as a 51 year old woman, 
defied a shelter in place order and was sucked into a funnel cloud as she 
exited the building.  Officials say other buildings on the hospital campus 
were damaged.

Emergency management officials confirm tornados touched down in Terrytown 
and Myrtle Grove on the Westbank of Jefferson Parish, and in Montz, St. 
Charles Parish.  In all three cases, there were no reports of injuries, 
but at least one building in the 200 block of Wright Avenue in Terrytown 
was damaged.

There were also several reports of funnel clouds that did not touch the 
ground, including one at the intersection of Causeway and Veterans 
Boulevard in Metairie.

Immediately following the storms, some 30,000 people lost power.  Entergy 
reported 9,000 outages, mostly in New Orleans East.  There were 9,000 
outages reported by the Washington/St. Tammany Electric Cooperative, and 
scattered outages reported by CLECO in Slidell, Mandeville, Madisonville 
and Covington.

Eyewitnesses also reported the facade of the former Texaco building at 
Canal and LaSalle Streets was torn off by high winds.  New Orleans Police 
blocked off part of Canal Street to keep pedestrians and traffic out of 
danger.