{"id":1772,"date":"2022-03-25T07:22:15","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T07:22:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linksus.net\/new-orleans-area-tornado-throws-house-30-feet-the-washington-post\/"},"modified":"2022-03-25T07:22:15","modified_gmt":"2022-03-25T07:22:15","slug":"new-orleans-area-tornado-throws-house-30-feet-the-washington-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/25\/new-orleans-area-tornado-throws-house-30-feet-the-washington-post\/","title":{"rendered":"New Orleans-area tornado throws house 30 feet – The Washington Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

A previous version of this article described the woman as a teenager. She is 21. The article and headline have been updated.
When a tornado touched down Tuesday night in Arabi, La., the growl of the twister and swirl of flying debris didn\u2019t last more than 15 seconds.
And then there was quiet.
\u201cWithin a split second there was nothing,\u201d Chuck Heirsch, a resident since 2003, told The Washington Post.
Heirsch, 58, assessed the damage of his home before walking out to check on his neighbors. He <\/b>could not believe what he was seeing.
\u201cWhen I opened the [front door], the neighbor\u2019s house is in the street,\u201d said <\/b>Heirsch, a truck driver who first recounted the story to the Times-Picayune\/New Orleans Advocate<\/a>.
The tornado that struck the east side of New Orleans that evening left thousands without power and at least one dead<\/a>. It was strong enough that it rocked the foundation of Heirsch\u2019s neighbors\u2019 house and sent it flying toward the middle of Prosperity Street.
His neighbors, a woman identified by the Associated Press <\/a>as Dea Castellanos and her husband, had made it out of the house unscathed, but their daughter, <\/b>who uses a wheelchair and was connected to a ventilator that night, was still trapped inside the house, Heirsch said. Castellanos\u2019s daughter, who has muscular dystrophy, wound up trapped in her bedroom yelling for help, the AP reported.
A family friend who did not wish to be named told The Washington Post that the couple\u2019s daughter is 21.
\u201cI refer to the whole situation as the \u2018Wizard of Oz,’ like she\u2019s Dorothy,\u201d the woman told The Post. \u201cBecause it lifted the home off the ground and dropped it in the middle of the street.\u201d
Castellanos told the AP through an interpreter that as the tornado hit the ground, she felt the house spinning before it tossed the one-story home about 30 feet from its lot, leaving it in the middle of the street.
\u201cThe wife was screaming frantically,\u201d Heirsch told The Post. The husband had a flashlight, he added, and was \u201cdisoriented and screaming.\u201d
Quickly, other neighbors came <\/b>out to help the couple. Heirsch said he called 911 to ask for an ambulance and also contacted the fire department and the energy company. The pressure of the tornado had ruptured the home\u2019s gas pipe, which made a loud whistling sound, and Heirsch worried the house could catch fire with the couple\u2019s daughter <\/b>inside.
At least one dead following New Orleans-area tornado that left path of destruction; thousands without power<\/a><\/span>
Not even the 911 dispatcher could believe what he described, Heirsch said.
\u201cIt\u2019s in the middle of the street?\u201d Heirsch recounted the dispatcher shouting on the other side of the line.
\u201cYes ma\u2019am,\u201d an exasperated Heirsch replied. \u201cDo you want to come in and check?\u201d
Within minutes, firefighters arrived.
About 20 minutes after that, Heirsch said, the energy company arrived and ordered everyone to stay away from the home as a crew of firefighters, and some neighbors, entered and dug the young woman out from the debris. They disconnected her from the ventilator, placed her on a gurney and walked her to the ambulance.
She was transported to the hospital, where she underwent surgery, Heirsch said. As of late Wednesday, Heirsch said he was told she was in stable condition.
Castellanos did not immediately reply to a message from The Post. Parish President Guy McInnis told the AP that the woman was \u201cdoing fine.\u201d
In an email, Charlie Licciardi, interim fire chief of the St. Bernard Parish Fire Department, commended firefighters \u201cwho immediately after that rescue continued working throughout the night.\u201d
The morning after the tornado, the family, who is from Honduras, came back to check what was left of their property. A group of neighbors, including Heirsch, handed them trash bags and tote bags for them to recover as many of their belongings as possible before heading back to the hospital to be with their daughter.
\u201cThat house is totaled,\u201d Heirsch said. \u201cOne side of the house is completely missing.\u201d
Heirsch said he is storing some of the family\u2019s belongings in his garage and on his patio. Heirsch, who rebuilt his house after Hurricane Katrina nearly 17 years ago, said severe weather and natural disasters are just a part of living in the New Orleans area.
\u201cI\u2019ve been through hurricanes, floods and everything,\u201d <\/b>he said. \u201c \u2026 It doesn\u2019t faze me anymore. \u2026 If you let it get to you, you\u2019d be sitting in a corner crying for the rest of your life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A previous version of this article described the woman as a teenager. She is 21. The article and headline have been updated.When a tornado touched down Tuesday night in Arabi, La., the growl of the twister and swirl of flying debris didn\u2019t last more than 15 seconds.And then there was quiet.\u201cWithin a split second there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":869,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/869"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1772\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/linksus2.linksus.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}