New Orleans Picks Up The Pieces After Tornadoes

Aerial view of tornado damage in New Orleans East
via NOLA.com  

Tuesday's unexpectedly strong tornadoes in and near New Orleans Louisiana miraculously caused no deaths, that's the good news.

Still, though, at least 33 people were injured and at least 300 properties were severely damaged as one of the strong tornadoes plowed a 2.5 mile long path through heavily populated New Orleans East, says NOLA.com

I'm particularly stunned and grateful there were no deaths, given all the videos I saw of people gawking at the tornado when it was right next to them.

They could have easily been killed by flying debris, or they might not have had enough time to get to shelter before the tornado hit.

After all, the tornado that trashed New Orleans East was the strongest to hit the New Orleans area since record keeping began around 1850. The twister was an EF3, packing winds of 136 to 165 mph.

Specifically, according to a National Weather Service assessment, the New Orleans East tornado had winds of 150 mph, was on the ground for 10.1 miles and had a width of up to 600 yards.

While tornadoes in the EF3 to EF5 catagories - the strongest - usually get all the headlines because they are so destructive, most tornadoes reported in the United States are in the EF0 to EF2 catagories.

In all, there were 12 reports of tornadoes Tuesday in Louisiana and Mississippi.

There will be few, if any severe thunderstorm or tornadoes in the nation over the next few days.

Now some tornado videos from the New Orleans area:

Heres the tornado swirling through a shopping plaza:



Surveillance video of the tornado exploding transformers, ripping a roof off and overturning a truck. The motorist who pulled into the parking lot must have been REALLY frightened.



Drone footage shows massive damage in New Orleans East from the tornado