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EF2 tornado in Caddo Parish, Louisiana

Tornado October 29, 2009 · Caddo Parish, Louisiana

EF2
Rating
13.0 mi
Whole path
600 yd
Path width
3
Injuries
$6.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Caddo Parish → Bossier Parish; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 600 yards (0.34 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

An EF2 tornado first touched down over downtown Shreveport and took the steeple off the top of the First United Methodist Church at the corner of Common and Texas Streets. The steeple fell on top of an automobile parked in front of the church and the steeple crushed the car which severely injured the man inside. The tornado also did damage to the Shreveport Convention Center and other downtown businesses including the downtown Shreveport YWCA. The storm continued on a north northeast track, crossing the Red River and continued into Bossier Parish just north of the Sam's Town Casino at approximately 1518 CST.

The wider storm

Widespread showers and thunderstorms developed along and ahead of a strong cold front as a powerful upper level storm system plowed into the southern plains during the afternoon hours of October 29th. Strong shear was in place across the region such that several tornadic thunderstorms developed...producing widespread wind damage across portions of northeast Texas, southwest Arkansas as well as northern Louisiana. These storms trained across the same general area such that flooding was widespread. Flooding was severe across northwest Louisiana where flooding was reported in many homes and businesses. Area bayous, creeks, rivers and lakes were already at high levels from the excessive heavy rainfall that fell earlier in the month. Thus, some lakes and bayous approached and succeeded their all time record stage levels.

Began near Shreveport Downtown (32.5072, -93.7578).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

11 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 197786. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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