Ascension, Livingston, St. James parishes pick up pieces after tornadoes – The Advocate

State and local emergency preparedness officials in Livingston, Ascension and St. James parishes spent much of Wednesday assessing damage from Tuesday's tornadoes that left some homes splintered and a few residents hospitalized for injuries.

The officials will be out in the field again tomorrow, joined by FEMA employees, hoping that the cumulative damage the state suffered, in this area and in New Orleans East, will be followed by a federal disaster declaration.

"We're trying to get a federal declaration, to get some help for these people," said Mark Harrell, director of the Livingston Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness.

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Governor John Bel Edwards has declared a state of emergency.

In Livingston Parish, two people were seriously injured when the tornado blew apart their home in Killian. At least eight homes were damaged in Watson, where four people were injured.

Except for at the homes struck by the tornado in Livingston Parish, power had been restored to all other areas of the parish, Harrell said on Wednesday.

In St. James Parish, the tornado struck down in the community of Lemannville near the Sunshine Bridge, with two injuries reported.

"We had some pretty severe damage," St. James Parish Sheriff Willy Martin said Wednesday. "I think we had a number of about eight houses totally destroyed and 15 to 20 with extensive damage."

Others had minor damage, said Martin, who expected to get the complete numbers at some point Wednesday and expected there would be 25 to 30 homes affected.

One of those injured was an elderly man who was trapped in his trailer home, Martin said. Neighbors were able to free the man, who was taken to an area hospital, he said.

Entergy reported Wednesday morning that more than 45 utility poles were down in Ascension and St. James parishes.

For customers that can safely accept power, service restoration is anticipated for Wednesday evening, Entergy officials said.

The Ascension Parish School Board office in Donaldsonville and the school district's Head Start building were without power Wednesday and remained closed.

Rick Webre, the director of the Ascension Parish Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said Wednesday it appears that the tornado that came for Donaldsonville touched down southwest of the city, then traveled northeast across the city, with most of its destruction centered along St. Patrick Street, near the city's historic district.

Elsewhere in the parish, the tornado caused damage to the CF Industries complex on the Mississippi River. The Ark Veterinary Clinic, close to River Road and near the plant, was badly damaged by the storm.

One minor injury was reported in Donaldsonville on Tuesday, with three minor injuries reported outside the city limits, in Ascension Parish.

Entergy reported early Wednesday that it was working to restore power to approximately 500 customers in the downtown Donaldsonville area, which includes Patrick Street, as well as on several other streets in the vicinity.

The company estimated that the majority of those without power in Donaldsonville area should see it restored by Wednesday evening.

The Red Cross had set up a shelter on Tuesday night, but nobody checked in and the shelter closed Wednesday, said Donaldsonville Fire Chief Chuck Montero, one of the local officials on hand at the Ascension Parish Sheriff's Office command center set up in a trailer in the parking lot of a Donaldsonville church.

On Wednesday morning, city employees operated a backhoe to pick up debris behind the row of wood-frame houses that were in the path of Tuesday's tornado.

The houses, with broken windows and roofs that had been damaged or torn away, stood quiet and empty, their residents having taken shelter elsewhere.

A more than a century-old cemetery on St. Patrick Street, near the damaged homes, escaped the tornado's winds; the stately headstones and wrought iron fence of the Bikur Sholin Cemetery, established in 1856, were unharmed.

Also unharmed was the home of Daisy Eames, 98. Eames said that her carport and her shed were blown away by the tornado. .

A neighbor's home to the right of Eames' house was in tatters.

"The Lord could have taken my house, too," Eames said.

She added, "He didn't take one life."

Advocate staff writers Grace Toohey and David J. Mitchell contributed to this story.

Follow Ellyn Couvillion on Twitter, @EllynCouvillion.

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Ascension, Livingston, St. James parishes pick up pieces after tornadoes - The Advocate