Tornado Crushes Louisiana Town, Rescue Begins as Storm Moves East

A freakish spring-like storm has reared its head and challenged Old Man Winter in Texas, Louisiana and other southern states in its path Tuesday. A swath of tornadoes and other severe weather pop ups have begun marching through Texas and Oklahoma on Tuesday and will continue churning through the Deep South the next couple of days.

This is while a major winter storm works its way through the Great Plains and the Midwest into the East Coast by this weekend.

Tornadoes dotted a few Texas towns from the Dallas area to East Texas on Tuesday afternoon, but one town in Northwest Louisiana got hit particularly hard. Storm chaser Brian Emfinger shot this footage in Four Forks, Louisiana, which is just south of Shreveport in Northwest Louisiana.

"There are pads where houses used to be and we're looking for the house," Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator said, according to KTBS.

The Weather Channel reported around 10 p.m. CT on Tuesday that law enforcement agents were still searching for two people who were still missing.

Deputies are going house to house, knocking on doors to check on residents, even using cadaver dogs to assist their search.

The band of storms tore through towns along the way, ripping apart homes and throwing debris wildly.

Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee are on storm and tornado watches throughout the night, and counties in Alabama, Georgia and northern Florida have been put on alert for Wednesday. Tornado watches are in effect for more than 1.5 million people as midnight approaches.

Nighttime tornadoes can be expected overnight from east central Louisiana through Mississippi and Alabama. The southern line of the band of storms is expected to sweep through southern Louisiana on Wednesday, and many schools have already been closed for the day. The storms are also forecast to wreak havoc through the southern portions of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Florida panhandle, on Wednesday.

As for the severity of Wednesday's storms, the National Weather Service stated that "damaging winds and tornadoes are possible" from the southern coast near the Gulf of Mexico all the way up into Tennessee.

"H​eavy rainfall could cause flash flooding from the northern Gulf Coast to as far north as the Tennessee Valley, northern Georgia and the southern Appalachians," the Weather Channel reported.

Winds and heavy rains are also possible Thursday from Southwest Florida all the way north into the Carolinas as part of this cold front sweeping the nation.