Feb. 13, 2007
By Gary D. Myers
NEW ORLEANS – A powerful line of storms ripped through the New Orleans area in the early morning hours Feb. 13, toppling trees, downing power lines and taking at least one life.
The storms were particularly frightening for thousands of area residents still living in small, vulnerable FEMA trailers 18 months after Hurricane Katrina.
The weather system moved into the area around 3 a.m., spawning at least one tornado. The tornado skipped across the metro area touching down on both sides of the Mississippi River. The storm also brought heavy rain and hail.
On the West Bank, media outlets in New Orleans reported that the storm destroyed a hotel in Westwego. Significant damage was also reported on the East Bank in the Carrollton, Mid-City, Gentilly and New Orleans East neighborhoods. More than 30,000 homes in Jefferson and Orleans parishes were without power.
The power outages prompted school closing throughout New Orleans and Jefferson Parish as well as isolated street closings. Xavier University also closed due to a power outage. A school building in the Carrollton neighborhood, which houses both the Priestley School of Architecture and Construction and the KIPP Believe College Prep School, was damaged by the storm.
Roofs were torn from homes in Gentilly’s Ponchartrain Park neighborhood just three blocks northeast of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Debris and roofing material from the neighborhood homes was scattered along Press Drive which borders the east side of NOBTS.
Also in Ponchartrain Park, media outlets reported that an elderly woman died when her FEMA trailer was lifted and tossed by the tornado. As many as a dozen other people were injured in the storm.
Chris Friedmann, associate vice president for operations at New Orleans Seminary, confirmed that the seminary campus was not damaged in the storm.
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