5 tornadoes tear through Louisiana and Mississippi, injuring 40

NEW ORLEANS — National Weather Service teams were studying scenes of severe weather damage in Louisiana and Mississippi on Wednesday to determine where tornadoes struck and just how powerful they were.

“Confirmation teams look for a concentrated, focused path” and check whether tree trunks and other large pieces of debris in that path cross each other, he said.

“The place started shaking, kind of twisting,” she said amid the wreckage at a small trailer park in eastern New Orleans, which got the worst of the weather that injured about 40 people in southeastern Louisiana.

The Louisiana tornadoes destroyed homes and businesses on Tuesday, flipped cars and trucks and left thousands without power, but no deaths were reported, Gov. John Bel Edwards said.

The governor took an aerial tour and made a disaster declaration before meeting with officials in New Orleans.