Two tornadoes tore through Louisiana on Wednesday, injuring five people and causing significant damage to homes and buildings in New Iberia, including a medical center.
The tornadoes are the latest in a marathon of severe weather this week in the southern Plains where two people were killed on Tuesday and at least five others were injured in multiple tornadoes.
"At approximately 11 a.m., a tornado damaged part of the IMC Main Campus, medical office building and some ancillary buildings and structures," said Lisa Landry, director of marketing for the Iberia Medical Center.
The tornado hitting the medical center blew out windows, and damaged vehicles, according to the Acadiana Advocate.
"Currently, there are five individuals with very minor injuries being treated in the ER," Landry said, while adding that the hospital's north campus and main campus are fully-functional with power and water.
A number of homes and buildings were destroyed, according to New Iberia Police Capt. Leland Laseter who said displaced residents were being housed at a temporary shelter at the local high school.
On Tuesday, multiple tornadoes in the southern Plains injured at least five people and killed at least two.
Search-and-rescue operations continued well into early Wednesday after a dangerous tornado near Four Forks, La., which is about 25 miles southwest of Shreveport, killed a mother and her young son.
According to the Caddo Parish Sheriff's Office, a boy was found dead in a wooded area of Pecan Farms, a town north of Four Forks, after his home was destroyed by the twister. Just after 2 a.m. CST, first responders discovered the body of the boy's mother under debris located about one street over from where her home was destroyed.
"It's a horrible mess down there ... we're following debris fields trying to find the actual residence, then trying to find if there's people inside the residence," Caddo Parish Sheriff Stephen Prator told AccuWeather National Reporter Bill Wadell.
A tornado also reportedly destroyed several residences and injured dozens of people in Farmerville, La., which is about 105 miles northeast of Shreveport.
Portions of North Texas were under a tornado watch early Tuesday as the storms began to fire up, tornado warnings following not long after. By 8:15 a.m. CST, Grapevine, Texas, a suburb roughly 20 miles to the northwest of Dallas, was placed under a tornado warning as the storms progressed eastward.
The five injured have been hospitalized, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, according to the Grapevine Police Department.
Video from the aftermath showed debris scattered across the road and the shattered windows of a diner as police sirens blared in the background. At least two-thirds of the restaurant's sign still clung to the post, the remaining portion crumpled on the ground.
After major structural damage, several businesses closed for the day, including the Walmart and Grapevine Mills Mall. Photos showed the interior of a local Sam's Club, where a section of the metal roof had been torn off.
"The first area of impact occurred just off of SH-26 and SH-114, at the Sam's Club and Walmart Supercenter," Grapevine Police Department media manager Amanda McNew told AccuWeather in a statement.
"Other nearby businesses were also hit as the storm traveled east along Northwest Highway, downing power lines and uprooting trees, before causing damage to the city service center and Grapevine Mills Mall."
The tornado in Grapevine was one in a series of three to strike Tarrant County, according to preliminary findings. Storm surveys from the National Weather Service office in Fort Worth confirmed three tornadoes -- two EF0 and one EF1 tornado -- had carved a discontinuous damage track from the joint reserve base in Fort Worth to Grapevine. An EF2 tornado was confirmed in Wise Count, and the fifth confirmed tornado struck west of Paris, Texas, though the NWS has not released a rating.
Earlier Tuesday, an EF2 tornado touched down in Wayne, Okla., located about 43 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, before 5:30 a.m. local time, scattering debris across the area. No injuries had been reported from the tornado as of Tuesday afternoon, but the violent twister reportedly tore through several homes.
Power outages across Oklahoma remained below 1,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, with the majority located in McClain County, where Wayne is located. By Wednesday morning, the number of power outages had dwindled as crews had time to venture out and repair damage left in the wake of the storms. In Texas, over 15,000 customers were without power during the afternoon hours, with 5,000 in Tarrant County, where Grapevine is located, according to PowerOutage.us. That number fell to nearly 2,000 without power statewide and over 500 without power in Tarrant County by Tuesday evening.
At Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, over 990 flights to and from the airport -- consisting of 63 of the departures and 43 of the arrivals -- have been delayed, according to FlightAware.
The severe weather will continue to roll eastward into Wednesday evening, pushing into Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi -- states that were hit rather hard at the end of November by another tornado outbreak that killed two.
AccuWeather meteorologists warn the greatest risk of severe weather on Wednesday will focus from southeastern Louisiana and Mississippi to southern Alabama and the western portion of the Florida Panhandle.
