Street flooding and tornadoes leave New Orleans area battered after mid-week storm (2024)

A line of storms packing intense rains and wind smacked the metro area Wednesday, leaving streets submerged across New Orleans as officials rationed power to the city’s antiquated pumps, while a tornado tore up roofs and flipped cars in Slidell.

The northshore took the biggest brunt of wind damage from the storm front that crossed the state. But it was street flooding that overtook New Orleans, as a half-foot of rain or more fell in many neighborhoods during what the National Weather Service called a “flash flood emergency.”

Along Old Spanish Trail in Slidell, a tornado ripped roofs off buildings, snapped trees and prompted a rescue of more than 50 people trapped in a partially collapsed apartment building, police said. Neighbors described what sounded like a blast as the roof of the Courtney Heights apartments blew apart.

The National Weather Service said it plans to survey the damage Thursday to assess what an initial report said was “consistent with at least an EF-1 tornado,” indicating winds of 86 to 110 mph.

A city underwater

Meanwhile, roadways on the south shore became impassable from Harahan to St. Roch, as heavy rains overtaxed the drainage systems of Jefferson and Orleans parishes.

Several New Orleans underpasses were shut down for flooding, which struck Wednesday in areas that are often inundated during heavy rains and many others that typically aren't. In response, the Regional Transit Authority suspended bus and streetcar service across the city.

New Orleans East, the 7th Ward, Mid-City, Gentilly, Uptown and the Central Business District were among the most submerged areas. Cars stalled out and major roadways were left inaccessible as some donned shrimp boots for wading.

Gustavo Guerra's Nissan Altima was adrift in the intersection of Music and North Galvez streets in St. Roch. He’d braved the storms to try to pick up a friend but didn’t make it far, he said as he gazed at the flooded car from a raised porch.

“I told my friend, ‘You’re going to have to walk home,’” he said.

The Sewerage and Water Board was forced Wednesday to ration power to its pumping stations due to "some issues with power," especially its backup generators. Officials did not elaborate on which pumping stations were affected or the severity of the issues, saying those details would be provided in an after-action report in coming days.

The embattled agency has been faced with reduced power capacity since a key turbine that generates electricity for its pumps went out in a Feb. 3 storm. That turbine isn’t expected back online until next month.

S&WB spokesperson Grace Birch said one of two primary turbines, known as T-5, remained online and running at full capacity Wednesday. Even at full power, however, the agency says its system can handle one inch of rain for the first hour of a storm, and half an inch every hour thereafter.

Totals of between five and eight inches were recorded on many New Orleans rain gauges: 8 inches in Hollygrove, 6 inches in the Ninth Ward, 7 inches on the lakefront in New Orleans East.

Several areas of the city saw more than 2 inches of rain in an hour, as residents slogged through the third storm in four months to cause severe street flooding.

The rainfall totals came close to those during some of New Orleans' other recent catastrophic flooding events, including in 2017 when eight inches of rain fell in a six-hour span.

Still, Wednesday’s event was much smaller than a series of May 1995 thunderstorms that dropped as much as 20 inches of rain on the New Orleans area. That system flooded over 40,000 homes and caused more than $3 billion in damage.

Storming across Louisiana

Rainfall rates were hefty region-wide as the weather began to ease up Wednesday afternoon. Among the readings: 9.9 inches in LaPlace, 7.3 inches in Metairie, and 6.8 inches in Mandeville.

The torrent overtopped canals in Jefferson Parish and forced officials to shut down major thoroughfares amid reports of flood-stalled cars.

The train of storms blanketed the state, leaving about 190,000 without power statewide at its peak. About 139,000 remained without power into the evening. Slidell was hit hardest, with more than 30,000 losing power. St. Tammany Parish officials opened two shelters Wednesday afternoon and Parish President Mike Cooper declared a state of emergency.

Entergy Louisiana said late Wednesday that buildings without power in Jefferson and the River Parishes should have it restored by the end of the night.

Despite the damage, Slidell Police spokesperson Daniel Seuzeneau said only minor and moderate injuries had been reported, with no deaths, “by the grace of God.”

A tornado also touched down at 6:30 a.m. in Lake Charles, near McNeese State University. The twister cut a mile-long path as it damaged the roofs of a health clinic and several homes, the National Weather Service reported.

Usual factors, unusual strength

Wednesday's storm arrived as the state and its imperiled coast brace for what forecasters expect to be an "extremely active" 2024 Atlantic hurricane season, citing warmer than normal temperatures in the Atlantic Ocean and the expected return of La Niña conditions.

But it was a typical combination of spring weather features that produced Wednesday’s deluge.

A strong low-pressure system moving swiftly from west Texas, a trough of low pressure nearer the surface and a fast-moving jet stream known as a “speed max” conspired to stir up air already oversaturated with moisture streaming from the Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center.

The result was an intense squall line of thunderstorms, running from southwest to northeast Louisiana, that created a bow feature of even stronger storms that dipped across Baton Rouge and the New Orleans area.

Their intensity and speed, combined with the jet stream wind shear, may have triggered tornados in St. Francisville and the corridor between Slidell and the Stennis Space Center in southwest Mississippi.

But even its straight line winds were significant. A reading of 78 mph was logged shortly before 10 a.m. at the center point of the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway.

“It was a quick mover,” said Shawn O’Neil, a meteorologist with the Slidell office of the National Weather Service. “That was the one good thing about it.”

Meteorologists say the region should dry out, with a cold front moving through the area to bring much more pleasant conditions on Thursday and Friday, with highs in the mid- to upper 70s.

Temperatures start to increase into the lower 80s over the weekend, still under mostly sunny skies, with no real chance of rainfall.

Staff writers Ben Myers, Mark Schleifstein, Alex Lubben, Kasey Bubnash,Anthony McAuleyand Sophie Kasakove contributed to this report.