At Least 6 Die in Louisiana Tornado

At least six people were killed Saturday when a tornado tore through this northwestern Louisiana town, flattening mobile homes and trapping people inside when walls collapsed around them, authorities said.

The police said six were killed at the Twin Point Trailer Park and that three died at the Hay Meadow Trailer Park. At least 30 house trailers were destroyed in the Hay Meadow park.

But Bossier Parish Coroner Dawn Young confirmed only six deaths late Saturday. The discrepancy between her report and that of state police could not immediately be reconciled.

About 100 people were injured, said Trooper Chris Johnson of the Louisiana State Police. Injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to broken bones and more serious injuries. Local hospitals reported at least five people in critical condition.

Hours after the twister hit, authorities were still looking for missing people, using police dogs and huge searchlights from nearby Barksdale Air Force Base.

Louisiana authorities went house to house looking for the injured or the dead, but decided they would have to bring in backhoes and front-end loaders to remove fallen wall panels and roofs.

Johnny Johnson, manager of Silver Dollar Bingo, a cinder-block building next to Hay Meadow, said about 20 people were getting ready to play when the twister hit.

“All of a sudden it just sucked the doors open,” he said. “The napkins, trash cans and everything else just all started moving around.”

The tornado tore off part of the roof, but no one was hurt.

At the Hay Meadow park, twisted trees and flipped cars were mixed in with the wreckage of the house trailers.

“You can’t even tell it was a trailer park,” Johnson said. “It looks like a trash heap.”

The National Weather Service said the twister was 300 yards wide when it passed through north Shreveport on its way to Benton.

In southern Missouri, meanwhile, severe storms brought flooding Saturday.

Fifty people were evacuated to emergency shelters in the Bootheel as flash floods swept across Fredericktown. People were rescued from the roofs of homes.

A 12-year-old boy was found dead in waist-deep water in a sawmill next to the flooded Caster River. Authorities think he was electrocuted.