Tornado Tears Into Louisiana Island Town; School Collapse Kills Three

A tornado smashed through this island fishing village Thursday, collapsing a school filled with children and killing at least three people, the Coast Guard reported.

One of the dead was was the high school’s prom queen; the others were construction workers caught behind the two-story school, officials said. At least 20 people were injured.

“I just looked out my window and saw the wind, and then there were trees flying by,” said Pat Bellanger, the mayor’s secretary. “While I was watching, the school just collapsed, and parts of it started blowing all over the place. I could see bricks, 2-by-4s, glass flying all over.”

The school has 315 students enrolled from kindergarten to 12th grade. The tornado hit at 2:45 p.m., minutes before the pupils would have been dismissed for the Easter holiday.

The twister also ripped apart some military barracks that had been converted to teacher housing and flipped about 20 mobile homes, injuring several people, said Joe Miller, a spokesman for the Jefferson Parish school system.

Mark Goldman, an investigator with the Jefferson Parish coroner’s office, identified those killed as: Tracey Alleman, a senior at Grand Isle School and its prom queen; and construction workers Timothy Hopkins, 22, and Donald A. Dugas, 49.

Tasha Chaisson, 17, was pinned under lockers with a teacher and another student. Tasha’s father, Aubrey Chaisson, found the three and freed them.

Bellanger said people ran from businesses, homes and fishing boats to the school and started pulling students and teachers from the rubble.

Her 5- and 8-year-old daughters were among those in class, but they were unharmed.

Joe Gibson, a spokesman with the Coast Guard in New Orleans, said at least three of the injured required hospitalization.

Power was knocked out and telephones worked intermittently after the storm, hampering rescue efforts. Grand Isle is about 50 miles south of New Orleans, the only inhabited barrier island on the Louisiana Gulf Coast.