Videos, Photos Show Aftermath, Destruction of Louisiana Tornado

A ferocious tornado ripped through the New Orleans area Tuesday night, knocking out the power of heavily damaged homes and killing at least one person in the same communities that were devastated by Hurricane Katrina 17 years ago.

The tornado touched down around 7:30 p.m., local time, and tore through the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans and parts of St. Bernard Parish, which is southeast to the city—before moving eastward around 7:50 p.m., according to the National Weather Service (NWS) New Orleans.

As residents emerged Wednesday morning to assess the damage, photos and videos of the tornado and its aftermath showed homes with their roofs ripped off, cars flipped over, and debris cluttering the streets. Some buildings appeared to have been completely shredded by the tornado.

"Mobile homes will be destroyed," NWS New Orleans said in its Tuesday alert. "Considerable damage to homes, businesses, and vehicles is likely and complete destruction is possible."

One video that showed a massive, ominous vortex moving through Arabi as flashes of lightning appeared behind the darkened sky went viral late Tuesday.

One person in the St. Bernard Parish was killed, according to local officials, although no details were given on how they died. Multiple people were taken to the hospital with injuries.

"I see downed power lines. A church is completely destroyed. Three businesses are completely destroyed. There are eight blocks of houses missing their roofs," New Orleans resident Reggie Ford told the Associated Press.

Entergy Louisiana's dashboard shows that power lines remain off early Wednesday, with more than 2,100 customers affected by the outage.

"As the sun comes up, you may be thinking of heading out to see the damage from last night's tornadoes. Please use extreme caution. Just because a wire or piece of equipment is on the ground, doesn't mean it isn't energized," the company advised Louisiana residents via Twitter.

It is unclear when power will be back on in the affected areas. Entergy said crews would begin restoring power in places deemed safe.

NWS New Orleans said it would send three teams to conduct damage surveys on Wednesday morning to determine the strength and track of Tuesday night's tornadoes.

"Additional tornadoes are sometimes discovered in the days following the event as new information becomes available," the service said.

Other tornadoes from the same storm system that struck Louisiana also hit parts of Texas and Oklahoma just a day earlier on Monday.