Louisiana town suffers through tornado, mother missing and child dead: sheriff

Tragedy struck Louisiana Tuesday evening after a possible tornado tore through the town of Keithville, killing a young boy and leading first responders on a search for his 30-year-old mother.

According to the Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to Lareta Street in Pecan Farms after reports of a tornado. The agency said several structures in the area were damaged and electrical lines and trees were knocked down.

After a large search for a missing child and a mother, the sheriff’s office reported an 8-year-old boy was found dead in a wooded area of Pecan Farms, where the home was destroyed. 

As of early Wednesday morning, deputies, K-9 teams, firefighters and volunteers were still searching through debris for the mom.

LARGE SNOWSTORM SPAWNS NATIONWIDE BLIZZARDS, TORNADOES IN SOUTH

A man and a woman were also transported to the hospital with unknown injuries. The sheriff’s office said deputies in Caddo Parish are going from house-to-house to check on the residents. 

Caddo Parrish Fire District Four posted the following statement on Facebook early Wednesday morning:

“Please keep our first responders and the members of our community in your thoughts and prayers tonight as an absolutely devastating tornado touched down in the southern part of the parish.”

News outlets in Louisiana also reported up to 25 injuries in Union Parish after a tornado leveled a neighborhood in Farmerville Tuesday evening. No fatalities were reported.

WINTER WEATHER POUNDS SIERRA NEVADA, DUMPS RAIN AND SNOW ACROSS NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

The deadly tornado in Louisiana was part of a massive severe weather outbreak moving east across the United States, creating tornadoes in the southern states and blizzard-like conditions from the Midwest to the northeast. 

Earlier in the day, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth, Texas confirmed five tornadoes touched down across the northern part of the state, but potentially a dozen occurred.

At least five people were injured in the Dallas suburb of Grapevine after a possible tornado struck the town.

The severe weather threat extends into Wednesday for Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.