Hundreds of homes in St. Tammany Parish are damaged and several people are injured after a tornado struck the parish, local officials say.
Parish President Mike Cooper declared a state of emergency in St. Tammany on Wednesday just hours after storms ravaged the area. According to Cooper's spokesperson, several people were injured in those storms. However, those people's conditions were not disclosed.
As of 3 p.m. Wednesday, nearly 40,000 St. Tammany Parish residents are without electricity as a result of the storms. Three-quarters of those people live in or just outside of the city of Slidell.
Parish authorities have opened three shelters for those whose homes were damaged or destroyed by Wednesday's heavy weather. Those shelters are located at John Slidell Park in Slidell, Creekside Junior High School in Pearl River, and the Lacombe Recreation Center.
