CADDO PARISH, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Search crews have recovered the bodies of a woman and her young son from the wreckage left behind by a tornado that tore through the Pecan Farms area in the south Caddo Parish community of Keithville early Tuesday evening, according to the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office.
The sheriff’s office says the woman’s body was found early Wednesday morning under wreckage caused by the tornado, one street over from where her home was destroyed. The boy’s body was found in a wooded area late Tuesday night.
First responders will continue to search the area for unknown victims, but so far, no one else has been reported missing as a result of the storm.
Prator says 20 to 30 homes were damaged in the rural neighborhood and along Lareta Street and Pecan Road and several are destroyed.
“Right now it’s just a horrible mess down there,” Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said Tuesday night. “We’ve got pads of homes and trailers that actually is just, it’s just the pad, and we don’t even know where the trailer homes or some of the homes are. And so we’re following debris fields trying to find the actual residents and then try to find if there’s people inside the residence. So it’s power lines down trees down everywhere down there, it’s just a total, total mess.”
Two people were injured and taken to the hospital. Search and rescue operations continued late into the night as more than 50 Caddo deputies went door-to-door and searched through debris to check on residents and look for missing people. State police also assisted in the search and recovery operation, along with firefighters, K-9 teams, and volunteers.
Prator said they were trying to get more lights brought in to help with the search, and they expect to bring in drones as soon as the weather clears up to use to scan for heat spots in the rubble.
Anyone who suffered damage to their home from the storm is urged to report it to the Caddo Sheriff’s Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness Deputy Director Robert Jump at (318) 675-2255 to report the damage and receive information on how to recover from the storm.
“It’s just a total mess and it’s a horrible situation. We really need to pray for these folks in this neighborhood out here besides losing everything. Some can’t even find their loved ones. So, I’m not trying to overstate the problem, but I’m telling you, it’s as big a mess as I’ve ever seen from the weather since I’ve been here.”
The destructive storms moved through the area just before 5 p.m., with reports of a confirmed tornado on the ground near Hwy 169, not far from Four Forks in southern Caddo Parish, before heading toward Shreveport.
The storms also brought powerlines and trees down in the area.
According to Caddo Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Robert Jump, a couple of trailers are destroyed and a couple of foundational homes are significantly damaged. Several more homes are damaged but still liveable.
The Harrison County Sheriff’s Office is also reporting storm damage from a tornado that touched down in the southeastern portion of the county in the Elysian Fields area just north of DeBerry. The sheriff’s office is urging people to stay out of that area unless they live there and to allow emergency services to access the area. Multiple power line and debris are reportedly blocking roadways.
The National Weather Service will be sending crews out to survey the damage Wednesday morning to Elysian Fields, Keithville and other locations in North Louisiana where tornadoes are believed to have touched down in Tuesday’s storms.