A multi-vortex tornado has touched down in New Orleans, heavily damaging houses and power lines, according to reports.
News footage showed the gigantic funnel scything across the city’s night sky on Tuesday evening, part of a “volatile” storm system that has already caused damage across the American South.
The Associated Press reported one person killed and multiple people injured amid widespread tornado damage, while the city parish of St Bernard was left without electrical power.
“There are houses that are missing,” New Orleans local sheriff James Pohlmann told The New York Times. “One landed in the middle of the street, and there was somebody trapped in that house.”
The trapped person was later rescued and taken to hospital, the Times added.
About 3.1 million people in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Missouri remained under storm risk warnings from the US National Weather Service (NWS) on Tuesday night.
“ Severe thunderstorms will be capable of producing tornadoes, wind damage and isolated large hail this evening across parts of the central Gulf Coast states,” said the agency.
“The greatest tornado threat will be near the axis of the low-level jet in southwest Alabama early this evening, where a significant tornado will be possible.”
Texas officials said one person had been killed and 10 injured when other tornadoes hit that state on Monday. The overall extent of the damage and the number of people affected in New Orleans was not yet clear on Tuesday night.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
