Ole-Sarge/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW ORLEANS) — New Orleans resident Johnny Lenoir was pulling into his driveway Tuesday when a tornado reached his home. All of a sudden, he said, the car was slammed by flying debris and the windows shattered.
Lenoir said he lay down across the seat. As the debris smacked against the car, rocking it back and forth, he was worried the car would flip over, he said.
Once the storm passed, he was shocked. He said the storm blew out his house’s roof and several windows.
“Just thank God I’m here,” Lenoir told ABC News. “We’re blessed, because — no fatalities … that’s a blessing right there.”
It took “seconds” for a tornado to rip through New Orleans resident Mike Boyd’s home.
“You could just hear everything, like, blowing up,” he told ABC News.
Once he and his wife emerged from their house, they found that “everything is gone,” Boyd said. “The whole back of the house is in shambles.”
Louisianans are picking up the pieces after multiple tornadoes tore through the southeast part of the state Tuesday, destroying and damaging homes and property.
The storm’s powerful winds flipped semitrailers, knocked down trees and toppled power lines, but no deaths were reported, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards reportedly said.
Five or six people in New Orleans sustained serious injuries in the storm and two of those people remain in the hospital today, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu said.
Landrieu on Wednesday that hundreds of people are “working around the clock” to clean up, and that they are now focused on clearing the downed power lines, trees and street lights.
As residents begin to rebuild their homes, officials said they want to set a record for the number of people who help their neighbors.
Landrieu called the amount of work people are already doing to assist their neighbors “really heartwarming.”
The governor, who declared a state of emergency for Louisiana, said in a statement, “I am heartbroken to once again see Louisiana families suffering.”
“We are working tirelessly to ensure that every citizen affected by this storm receives the resources they need, as quickly as possible,” he added.
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