Cleanup underway in New Orleans after tornado causes damage

A photo gallery of the damage can be found at The New Orleans Advocate website. “They happened to be right near a building when it collapsed”, said Aaron Miller, director of the city’s homeland security office.

In addition to the collapsed and damaged buildings, extensive debris was strewn about the area by the storm, two power poles were knocked down and a trampoline was lofted into the power lines.

“Two individuals were walking down the street in the severe weather”. There are also reports of wind damage including missing shingles and downed power lines.

Michael Matthews works for a New Orleans ministry and was at North Claiborne and St. Philip when he saw the funnel cloud headed for Treme.

Police said there were four scenes of buildings down and officials were consulting with the National Weather Service to determine if a tornado struck the area.

“It was a dilapidated two-story structure”. It had work done and then it was rotting and had work done again. “It’d be waiting to fall down for years”.

About 3:30 p.m., viewers began sending in pictures of a funnel cloud over the French Quarter area. Firefighters who made quick inspections of the downed homes, don’t believe that anyone was inside the buildings.

“We helped pull him out”.

While people living in the area didn’t welcome the storm’s dangers they said it did the neighborhood a bit of favor by knocking down buildings that needed it.

“It’s just unbelievable, it’s pretty incredible”, said Mayor Mitch Landrieu.

Are you surprised that a tornado touched down within the city of New Orleans?