Deadly storms slammed central and north Louisiana yesterday, killing two in DeSoto and Rapides Parishes.
In DeSoto, rains sparked flash floods that claimed the life of an unidentified Mansfield man. Sherriff’s spokesperson Mark Pierce says the heavy rainfall produced a strong current in a drainage ditch.
“We did have a citizen who saw that his trash can was about to float away, and jumped in to grab it. Unfortunately the current was way too strong,” says Pierce.
The current reportedly carried the man about 50 yards before his body was recovered.
Sheriff Jayson Richardson told local media that the flooding was “water like I’ve never seen in many, many years if ever”. Pierce says rains just hammered the region.
“It was just an enormous heavy rain that was very, very sudden and as soon as it died down we got another wave of very similar heavy rain,” says Pierce.
In Rapides Parish 67-year-old Becky Roberts was killed by a potential tornado in Lecompte. National Weather Service forecaster Seth Warthen says the suspected supercell was highly unusual for the area.
“Based on some of the velocities that we have seen there was evidence of wind speeds of maybe over 100 miles per hour but we can’t give it a rating until our survey crews complete their assessment,” says Warthen.
There were reports of two potential tornadoes in the area.
Warthen says the potential tornadoes were part of a long track supercell that appeared to have traveled a long distance.
“it actually tracked and caused damage, I believe I heard of fatalities to an area north of Houston, that supercell tracked all the way into central Louisiana and eventually into Rapides Parish,” says Warthen.
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