67°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

In Killian, people felt houses fly away in morning storm

7 years 1 month 2 weeks ago Tuesday, February 07 2017 Feb 7, 2017 February 07, 2017 6:49 PM February 07, 2017 in News
Source: WBRZ

KILLIAN - Life was upended in this typically quiet, swampy paradise in low-lying Livingston Parish Tuesday morning.

"I don't remember breathing," Dennis Hill, the police chief of this small community, said as he described the terror of what is expected to be a twister moving through Killian. Hill was one of the first people to arrive on Davidson Road after the morning storm.

An elderly couple was rescued from their home that was toppled by the suspected tornado. Eyewitnesses said it took about 30-seconds for the home to be blown off its foundation and torn apart.

"It was a husband and wife inside," Hill said of the family living there with their dog. "One has a broken arm, the other a possible injury to [their] back."

Hill, standing in the middle of a tornadic mess, remembers what was once there. "Everything... is just completely destroyed," he said.

The couple that was injured in the storm was taken to an area hospital.

Not long after the storm moved through, people rushed to the area to look for anyone who may need rescuing. Ronnie Glover was looking for his family, who he found.
His search proved to be more mindboggling than mournful. His family was safe, his sister's home intact but not much else was recognizable.

"When I saw her house up it was joy, but all [this other damage]; I was born and raised here, it just changed everything," Glover said of the storm.

Nearby, Bill Thrasher recounted a different story: one of survival. Thrasher told WBRZ reporter Taylor Evans, seconds after he heard a tornado siren and the proverbial sense of a twister.

"I was in my house, I could almost feel the whole house go airborne," he said.

The National Weather Service will officially determine a tornado in this area.

***************

Follow the publisher of this post on Twitter: @treyschmaltz

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days