BREAKING: Destructive Tornadoes In New Orleans, Other Areas Of South Now

Tornado damage in New Orleans today via NOLA.com

Destructive tornadoes are sweeping parts of Louisiana and surrouding areas today, with one particularly damaging one hitting the New Orleans metro area around 11 a.m. local time.

An hour and a half later, another tornado had reportedly touched down in the New Orleans area.

Initial video shows a wide tornado lumbering through the New Orleans East, including the community of Michaud with the first wave of storms. (You can see one of the videos at the bottom of this post.)

Other video shows badly damaged houses, overturned vehicles and debris scattered over large areas.  Photos on the NOLA.com website showed numerous homes, businesses and cars destroyed or damaged in New Orleans East.

NOLA.com reported the New Orleans East tornado struck at least one school, which was full of students.

There were no injuries immediately reported at the school, as faculty and students received a tornado warning in advance and took cover.

Tornado damaged house in New Orleans East today.
Photo via Twitter, Matt Sledge. 

More tornadoes and severe weather are likely in the South for the rest of the day.  As of 2 p.m. EST, parts of eastern Louisiana, and the southern portions of Mississippi and Alabama were under tornado watches.

The watches include the cith of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, which was badly damaged in a January tornado.

It had been hoped and it appeared in advance hat today's severe weather would not rival that of a destructive tornado outbreak in the South last month. However, as we can see, large, damaging tornados are striking populated areas today.

I'll update the story as we go along.

Below is a video of the very large tornado moving through Michaud, Louisiana, in the New Orleans area today: