CNN
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More than a dozen tornadoes were reported to have lashed communities in Texas and Louisiana, with many homes and businesses damaged and windows and roofs blown off buildings — a threat that is expected to swell across other southern states on Wednesday. continue living.
A massive, multi-day storm has had mixed effects across swaths of the U.S. this week, with parts of Alabama, Florida and Mississippi under a tornado watch by 5 a.m. Wednesday, while the Midwest It will also snow.
“By Wednesday morning, a winter storm will move into the central Mississippi River. Heavy snow and cold conditions over Oklahoma and the Ozarks will spread northeast into the Ohio Valley by early Wednesday,” the National Weather Service said. tweeted.
The storm caused widespread damage to the Houston-area neighborhoods of Deer Park and Pasadena on Tuesday, with streets littered with fallen trees and debris and thousands without power after lines were destroyed.
“We’ve seen a lot of destruction. We’ve seen buildings that have collapsed,” Pasadena Mayor Jeff Wagner said.
The city’s police chief, Josh Bruegger, described the damage as the worst he’s seen in 25 years, adding: “We’re going to have our hands full over the next few days.”
In Deer Park, Father Reginald Samuels, of those in St. Petersburg, said Hyacinth Catholic Church hunkered down in a hallway and closed all the doors because they heard what they believed to be a tornado ripping through the area.
“It was really loud, we heard glass shattering, the building was shaking and then it was quiet,” Samuels told CNN, adding that no one was injured.
Mayor Jerry Mouton told CNN that on Tuesday afternoon, damage was also reported at a nursing home in Deer Park, prompting the evacuation of about 60 residents. No injuries were reported, according to Jerry Dilliard of the Atascocita Fire Department. CNN reached out to the nursing home’s operator on Tuesday for more information.
Schools in the city will be closed Wednesday as the deer park is being cleaned up, the district said.
“We hope this will give families an opportunity to recover from the stress of today’s events, and we believe children are best left with a parent or guardian after a natural disaster,” the district said in a statement sent to parents and staff Tuesday night. .
“It appears that many homes and businesses in our area have been damaged and some communities are still without power at this time,” the statement continued.
Photos of the damage to the deer park showed tree branches falling on the road, roofs blown off buildings and damaged vehicles.
More than 100,000 homes and businesses in Texas and Arkansas were plunged into darkness early Wednesday morning, according to tracking site PowerOutage.us. As of 9 p.m. ET, there were at least 14 tornadoes in southeastern Texas and southwestern Louisiana.
In Beauregard Parish, Louisiana, the sheriff’s office reported extensive damage to homes and other structures, noting that roads were blocked and power lines were out. Nearly 16,000 homes and businesses in Louisiana were also without power early Wednesday morning.
Overall, there were no reports of serious injuries related to Tuesday’s storm damage, and Pasadena officials reported one injury.