The Nation : Spring Storms, Winds Batter Gulf States

Tornadoes destroyed a cluster of mobile homes in Louisiana but caused no injuries as thunderstorms moved across southeastern Texas into Louisiana, producing wind gusts up to 75 m.p.h. and downing power lines, officials said. Hail battered regions south of Baton Rouge, and Bandera County, Tex., had 2 inches of rain in 15 minutes, the National Weather Service said. One woman suffered minor injuries near Hammond, La., when high winds slammed a tree onto her moving car, said Willie Graves, deputy for the Livingston Parish Sheriff’s Office. A tornado touched down west of Hammond, destroying four to five mobile homes, but causing no injuries, Graves said. Hammond is about 65 miles northwest of New Orleans. The weather service issued a flood watch for the Catskill Mountains, the Susquehanna region and the lower Hudson Valley of New York, while thundershowers extended from southern New England to the coast of North Carolina.