EF3 Tornado — Orleans, Louisiana

2017-02-07 · near Lee, Orleans, Louisiana

Event narrative

A tornado touched down just east of the industrial canal and moved northeast into the Evangeline Oaks Subdivision where it quickly strengthened into a multi-vortex EF-2 tornado. In this area, it snapped several power poles and caused significant roof damage to an apartment complex as well as a building similar to an automobile service building. the tornado then turned toward the east and continued to move almost due east through neighborhoods just north of Chef Menteur Blvd. The worst damage was generally along and just north of Grant Street from Read Blvd to Chalmark Dr. In this area, dozens of homes lost all or large portions of their roof structures. Several homes also had numerous collapsed walls. A few two story homes suffered almost complete destruction of the top floor with the exception of one or two interior corner walls. The tornado also bent at least 3 steel electrical transmission poles. The tornado continued moving toward the east, causing damage to the NASA Michoud facility and a few other industrial buildings in the area, and rolling a rail tanker car east of the Michoud Canal. The track is terminated at Lake Borgne, but the tornado likely continued for some time after that over water. Of the 33 injuries, 5-6 of them were considered serious. Maximum estimated wind speeds were around 150 mph. In total, the tornado caused moderate to severe damage to 638 homes, of which around half were considered total losses. At least 40 businesses also suffered moderate to severe damage.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed ahead of an approaching cold front across southeast Louisiana, southern Mississippi, and the adjacent coastal waters.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (30.0105, -90.0000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 675328. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.