A tornado with peak winds of 105 mph cut a 5-mile-long path through northeastern St. James Parish as severe storms passed through southeast Louisiana on Thursday night, federal weather officials have found.
The tornado snapped trees and power poles and damaged or tore off the roofs of homes on its six-minute rampage near or through the rural Whitehall and Romeville communities along the Mississippi River, a National Weather Service report says.
Phil Grigsby, a lead forecaster with the Weather Service office in Slidell, said officials reached their conclusion about the tornado after an agency survey team visited the area and reported their results on Friday evening.
The twister was an EF-1 tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, the rating system for tornadoes, agency officials said.
Early Friday, St. James Parish officials said they had suspected a tornado passed through the area, and Weather Service officials said radar Thursday night also indicated a twister had likely passed.
But the tornado wasn't confirmed until survey teams checked the St. James area on Friday; the twister's path of damage was as wide as 120 yards across, one-fifth longer than the length of a football field.
The tornado touched down about 10:46 p.m. along River Road between Whitehall and Romeville, headed southeast in a parallel path along the river levee until it reached Romeville north of Convent at maximum intensity.
The tornado snapped more power poles along La. 3214 and La. 3125 before lifting up just south of the La. 3214/La. 3125 intersection about 10:52 p.m.
The EF-1 tornado was on the upper end of the second-least severe category of tornado on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. EF-1 twisters have winds ranging from 86 mph to 110 mph.
The most severe are EF-5 tornadoes, with winds of more than 200 mph.
St. James Parish drone images of the damage in St. James show a smashed home in the Whitehall area, a travel trailer apparently picked up and dumped by the winds and then broken open in a cane field, and a string of snapped power lines in a field along La. 3125 and La. 3214.
Parish officials said they have received reports outside the National Weather Service network that include a 105- to 108-mph gust at the Zen-Noh Grain elevator along the Mississippi River in the Convent area near the path of the tornado.
The heavy storms on Thursday night also brought damaging straight-line winds across much of southeast Louisiana, which generally saw peak winds of 50 to 70 mph with some isolated 80 mph winds, Weather Service officials have said.
National Weather Service reports recorded the peak gust in the region at 84 mph at New Orleans Lakefront Airport around 11:30 p.m. Thursday.
High winds from a storm that passed through Thursday night apparently picked and dumped this travel trailer in a cane field in St. James Parish, as seen through parish government drone footage taken Friday, May 17, 2024.
In St. James, peak wind readings generally downriver of Romeville hovered between 45 and 55 mph: Vacherie at 47 mph, Gramercy at 54 mph and Paulina at 47 mph, according to National Weather Service readings.
A St. James emergency official estimated at least 35 to 40 homes in all had roof damage significant enough to spark requests for tarps but speculated that figure may be undercounting the full damage.
The small community of Romeville is just north of Convent along River Road. The tornado damage is around Romeville Park and Pleasant Hill and Hargis streets.
The parish also had wind damage on Ester and Central Crossing streets a little farther upriver of Romeville and closer to Whitehall, parish officials said.
Suspected straight-line winds tore the roof off this home on Ester Street in northeastern St. James Parish near Whitehall on Thursday night, as seen through parish government drone footage taken Friday, May 17, 2024. Parish officials suspect a tornado passed a few miles to the south of this home in Romeville.
Parish officials said in a Facebook post Friday that no injuries or fatalities have been reported.