EF1 Tornado Tosses Cars, Causes Structural Damage Near Baton Rouge, Louisiana

Sean Breslin and Pam Wright
Published: May 12,2017
A confirmed EF1 tornado was reported near Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Friday morning, which tossed cars into the air like toys and injured at least one person.
Photos and video posted to social media showed the tornado in the Sherwood Forrest area on the east side of the city.
The National Weather Service said the tornado that remained on the ground for a half-mile packed winds as high as 90 mph and was 30 yards wide.
According to WBRZ.com, one person was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries after the truck in which they were driving was flipped by the strong winds.
WBRZ also said several other vehicles were tossed about, some structures may have been damaged and nearly 2,600 residents in the area were without power following the passage of the line of storms that produced the tornado.
A second EF1 tornado was confirmed near the White Castle area. No injuries were reported, but several buildings had roof damage, according to White Castle Fire Department Chief John Marque Jr. White Castle is located about 20 miles south of Baton Rouge.
"This appears to be yet another case of a short-lived tornado developing quickly along a line of thunderstorms moving through Louisiana," said weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman. "There wasn't a tornado or severe thunderstorm warning or watch in place before this quickly spun up along what appeared to be an old outflow boundary, according to the National Weather Service."
(MORE: Why Some Tornadoes May Not Get Warned Even as Technology Improves)
South of New Orleans, an EF0 tornado was confirmed in the town of Marrero. The twister caused minor property damage late Friday morning, according to the NWS.

Damaging Storms Hit Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas Thursday

On Thursday, vehicles were damaged in Boone County, Arkansas, after a storm dropped 4-inch hail. In Perkins, Oklahoma, hail that measured up to 4.5 inches pelted the city.
In Texas, at least three tornadoes were confirmed from the Thursday night storms – an EF2 near Garrison, an EF1 near Henderson and an EF0 in Van Zandt County.
Damage was reported Thursday afternoon as a confirmed EF1 tornado damaged homes northeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, and vehicles were pelted by large hail northwest of Oklahoma City.
At 2:03 p.m. CDT, the National Weather Service warned in a tweet that a tornado was likely in progress between the towns of Owasso and Collinsville, located northeast of Tulsa.
(MORE: Where Severe Storms Could Strike Next)
Shortly after the tornado warning was issued, a funnel was spotted nearby.
In the minutes that followed, storm chasers and reporters reached the area and found damage to homes and outbuildings in Rogers County. No injuries were reported, but more than 4,400 homes and businesses were without power in Tulsa and Owasso, according to the Tulsa World.
"It was spinning and there was debris all over the street," Owasso resident Sonya Olvera told the Tulsa World. "I just ran and hid under my stairs."

Damage from a likely tornado is seen in Rogers County, Oklahoma, on Thursday, May 11, 2017.
(Tiffany Alaniz/FOX23)

Owasso is a town of about 34,000 located some 10 miles northeast of Tulsa.
Hail as big as tennis balls was reported in Kingfisher, Oklahoma, northwest of Oklahoma City. Some vehicles suffered serious damage in the wake of the hailstorm. Northeast of Oklahoma City, baseball-sized hail was reported in Langston. Just to the northeast in Coyle, car and building windows were shattered at the school.
MORE: Severe Storms, Flooding Hit the Midwest and South

The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.