Followup: Cleanup Begins After Southern Tornadoes, Floods, Ohio Under The Gun Today

Tornado damage in Slidell, Louisiana on Wednesday

As expected, the South was swamped by severe weather and flooding Wednesday, and more storm damage was spreading eastward and northward today. 

No extreme tornadoes are known to have touched down, but several twisters caused quite a bit of damage in some towns from Texas to Florida, shredding businesses and smashing homes along the way. 

Much of the worst damage was right along the Gulf Coast rather than further inland. Tornadoes usually hit somewhat further north.  Usually when Gulf Coast towns are trashed by storms, it's almost always a hurricane or tropical storm instead of tornadoes. 

Some examples: An EF-2 tornado packing winds up to 120 mph hit parts of Port Arthur, Texas before dawn Wednesday. At the same time, a flash flood emergency was in effect in the area due to torrential rains. Those came both from the thunderstorm that caused the twister and a series of storms that preceded it. 

The same situation hit Slidell, Louisiana, a city sandwiched between Lake Pontchartrain and the Gulf of Mexico a little northeast of New Orleans. Like Port Arthur, Slidell also simultaneously dealt with a tornado that trashed buildings in town and widespread flash flooding that invaded other homes and businesses.

Inspections of the damage are just starting so we don't yet have a determination of how many tornadoes touched down yesterday. 

New Orleans, caught between the two tornadic storms, escaped any twisters, but ended up being overwhelmed by flooding. More than four inches of rain fell there within three hours and a total for the day of 6.24 inches. 

FLORIDA

The storms continued on overnight, causing additional damage in the Florida panhandle.

The line of storms extended into the Gulf of Mexico since yesterday.    That line headed steadily eastward and has been making landfall on the central west coast of Florida this morning and early afternoon. There have already been reports of possible tornadoes and severe wind in western Florida. The threat continues all afternoon. 

OHIO AGAIN

For some reason Ohio and surrounding areas  has been repeatedly raked by tornadoes and severe storms since mid-March. 

They might do it again today.

Especially if some clearing can take place this afternoon to help destabilize the atmosphere, more supercells and possible tornadoes could strike eastern Ohio, western West Virginia and maybe southwestern Pennsylvania today. 

The tornado threat should ebb temporarily in the United States Friday through Sunday. A new storm will greatly revive the threat of severe storms and tornadoes starting next Monday in the center of the nation.