Tornado Socks New Orleans as Death Toll From Storms Reaches 3

Tornadoes continued to sweep across the South on Wednesday, killing one person west of New Orleans and leaving scattered damage near the Crescent City, one day after a series of ferocious storms left two others in Louisiana dead and dozens injured.

Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana declared a state of emergency, and parts of Alabama, Florida and Georgia were under tornado watches late Wednesday night.

Tornadoes were confirmed in two spots in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday night, though there were no reports of damage as they went through forests, the National Weather Service said. Eric Bunker, a forecaster with the Weather Service, said that storms were expected to continue moving east throughout the Panhandle and into parts of Alabama overnight and into Thursday morning.

The death on Wednesday occurred about 2:30 p.m. when a tornado in Killona, La., in St. Charles Parish, about 35 miles west of New Orleans, killed a woman, the parish said in a Facebook post. Seven other people were injured.

A separate tornado was confirmed in New Orleans around 4:30 p.m., said Lauren Nash, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Louisiana.

That tornado caused “significant” damage, Ms. Nash said, specifically to an adjacent community, Arabi, La., which also was hit by a tornado in March that left one person dead and numerous houses damaged. There were no immediate reports of deaths or injuries, though nearly 21,000 people were without power on Wednesday night, according to the tracking website poweroutage.us.

For most of metro New Orleans, the storm on Wednesday blew into the area about 4 p.m. as hard rain and intense wind, but a brief squall. Most area schools and many businesses had sent people home early in the day in anticipation of bad weather.

The damage appeared largely confined to the west bank of the Mississippi, in the historic Algiers neighborhood. For most of the region, the storm left rainwater in the streets and tree branches down.

Residents expressed a sense of exasperation to have been threatened by tornadoes in December after having put another hurricane season behind them.

Kaare Johnson of New Orleans has lived in Louisiana for more than 50 years and said that tornadoes had only recently started to affect the area. Many have followed very similar paths, and the same neighborhoods have been devastated multiple times.

“Hurricane season is in the rearview mirror,” he said, “and then we get this hurricane-like damage in parts of the city.”

Lauren Edward Denny of Arabi, La., has spent most of the year rebuilding his house after it was destroyed by the tornado in March, he said. After the tornado on Wednesday, he drove home not knowing if it had been hit again. Thankfully, he said, his home was spared, but he could see the damage about 200 yards away from his porch.

“Had the house suffered damage today, I think that was it for me,” said Mr. Denny. “I just don’t think I would have stayed. Hurricanes we can see, we can prepare for, but these things, we don’t have a way to prepare for them.”

The two earlier tornado-related deaths occurred when a home was destroyed on Tuesday in Keithville, La., in northwestern Louisiana, according to a statement from the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office. The body of a woman was found early Wednesday. Her young son was also killed.

The police in New Iberia, La., said in a recorded message on Facebook that at least two tornadoes had touched down in the area on Wednesday with “significant damage” to the residential subdivision of Southport Boulevard and a “significant amount of damage” to Iberia Medical Center, a hospital.

On Tuesday, at least 20 people were injured, some critically, as a tornado tore through Union Parish, La., about 100 miles east of Shreveport, local officials said. The storm leveled part of a large apartment complex and several mobile homes.

In Decatur, Texas, a third tornado, which the Weather Service described as “large and extremely dangerous,” injured two people on Tuesday. There were multiple reports of damage to homes and businesses.

Also on Tuesday morning, a fourth tornado struck Wayne, Okla., and traveled for at least three miles with winds reaching 120 to 125 miles per hour, according to preliminary information from the Weather Service.

Multiple homes and barns were damaged, and power poles and trees were downed, according to the McClain County Sheriff’s Office, which said there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

Scientists have not yet determined a link between climate change and the frequency or strength of tornadoes.

Researchers, however, say that tornadoes in recent years seem to be occurring in greater “clusters,” and that the area of the country known as Tornado Alley, a region where most tornadoes occur, appears to be shifting eastward.

The timing of tornado seasons is also becoming more unpredictable, researchers say, with more early and late starts compared with decades ago.

Adam Nossiter, April Rubin, Livia Albeck-Ripka, Jenny Gross, Amanda Holpuch, Isabella Grullón Paz, Michael Levenson and Derrick Bryson Taylor contributed reporting.