KEITHVILLE, La. — A volatile storm ripping across the U.S. spawned tornadoes blamed for killing at least three people in Louisiana, and the line of punishing weather threatened neighboring Southern states into the nighttime hours Wednesday.
To the north, the huge storm system delivered blizzard-like conditions to the Great Plains and was expected to push more snow and ice into Appalachia and New England. The wintery blast dumped more than 2 feet (60 centimeters) of snow in parts of South Dakota.
Authorities in St. Charles Parish west of New Orleans said eight people were taken to hospitals with injuries Wednesday afternoon and one woman was found dead outdoors after a suspected tornado struck the community of Killona along the Mississippi River, damaging homes and flinging debris.
“She was outside the residence, so we don’t know exactly what happened,” St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said of the woman killed. He added. ”There was debris everywhere. She could have been struck. We don’t know for sure. But this was a horrific and a very violent tornado.”
About 280 miles (450 kilometers) away in northern Louisiana, it took hours for authorities to find the bodies of a mother and child reported missing after a tornado swept away their mobile home Tuesday in Keithville, a rural community near Shreveport.
“You go to search a house and the house isn’t even there, so where do you search?” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards told reporters, noting the challenge faced by emergency responders as he toured a mile-long (1.6-kilometer) path of destruction in Keithville.
The Caddo Parish Coroner’s Office said the body of 8-year-old Nikolus Little was found around 11 p.m. Tuesday in a wooded area. His mother, Yoshiko A. Smith, 30, was found dead under storm debris around 2:30 a.m. Wednesday.
Smith’s body was discovered one street over from where their home had been. Her son was found dead as far as a half-mile away, said Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Sgt. Casey Jones. He said the boy’s father had left to buy groceries before the storm hit.
“He just went to go shopping for his family, came home and the house was gone,” said Jones. When deputies arrived, they found nothing but a concrete slab.