A tornado that flattened parts of central Louisiana during its 62 mile trip from DeRidder to Alexandria is confirmed to have peaked at EF-3, with winds of 140 to 160 miles per hour.
NWS Forecaster Kent Kuyper says the twister peaked at a remarkable 400 yards wide but varied wildly depending on where it was.
“Anywhere from 500-feet to 12-hundred feet, so there is some oscillation and change in the strength.”
Kuyper says it’s the biggest tornado he’s seen strike the region in his 20 years out of Lake Charles.
“Even the strength was an EF-3. In Louisiana, we generally have EF-zero or EF-1 tornados, maybe occasionally an EF-2.”
The system was a full EF-3 when it entered southwest of Alexandria, but had dipped down to around an EF-1 when passing south of Leesville.
The tornado grew as the system moved through the region, and Kuyper says he had upgraded the situation from a regular tornado, before making a rare declaration as it approached Alexandria.
“We finally went to the last one which is a tornado emergency. You only do that when you have a tornado is entering the city to alert everybody to the dangers.”
One person died in Vernon Parish as a result of the event when their mobile home was crushed by another trailer that had been flung by the high winds.
