{"id":1516630,"date":"2026-06-19T03:33:20","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T08:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1516630"},"modified":"2026-06-19T04:30:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T09:30:28","slug":"tropical-storm-remnants-drench-gulf-states-after-tornadoes-hit-the-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=1516630","title":{"rendered":"Tropical storm remnants drench Gulf states after tornadoes hit the Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
A snapped power pole hangs over a car lot at Joseph Cadillac in Florence, Ky, Thursday, June 18, 2026, after severe weather moved through the region. (AP Photo\/Carolyn Kaster)<\/figcaption><\/figure>NEW ORLEANS (AP) \u2014 The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur battered parts of the southeastern United States with drenching rains and strong wind on Thursday, tearing through buildings, flooding homes and launching water rescues along the Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n

Severe weather also pummeled parts of the Midwest, where a separate line of strong storms knocked down structures and left tens of thousands of residents without power.<\/p>\n

Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, and although it quickly downgraded within a day of forming, the lingering system created dangerous conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi. In one rural Louisiana parish, more than 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours and most of that soaking came Thursday, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.<\/p>\n

It flooded at least 200 homes in Avoyelles Parish, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Louisiana state Rep. Daryl Deshotel said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven by this region\u2019s standards, that\u2019s catastrophic rain,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a social media post Thursday night that a worker on a county road crew in the southwestern part of the state had been killed while helping with storm cleanup operations. The cause of the death was not disclosed.<\/p>\n

Thirty homes below the Anchor Lake dam in southern Mississippi were being evacuated as a precaution due to concerns that rising waters could overwhelm the spillways and compromise the structure, Reeves said. Residents in the area were being encouraged to seek higher ground.<\/p>\n

Coni Dubois said several inches of water flooded her home overnight in Houma, southwest of New Orleans, but others in the community had worse damage. She\u2019s lived through many hurricanes and other storms, but never witnessed thunder and lightning like this.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was unbelievable, it literally sounded like hell broke open,\u201d Dubois said. \u201cI thought for sure we had a tornado on top of us. The lightning and the thunder was so consistent, the whole house was lit up like daylight for about 20 minutes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue crews, officials said.<\/p>\n

One tornado had been confirmed in Avoyelles Parish in central Louisiana, along with three others near New Orleans, the weather service said.<\/p>\n

Louisana Gov. Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency for some storm-hit areas, and the town of Cottonport in Avoyelles Parish said it was turning off water service overnight \u201cto manage our resources and allow our system to recover.\u201d It urged residents to limit water use and to fill pots and other containers before the water was shut off.<\/p>\n

Amid relentless rainfall in central Louisiana, Cody Coco said he rescued stranded workers \u2014 waist deep in water \u2014- at a cypress sawmill operation he runs near his home in Avoyelles Parish. He said the water has continued to rise all throughout the day.<\/p>\n

Coco, 40, said he also used a boat to rescue the four pigs he kept in a pen. Video he shared on his Facebook page shows the hogs swimming out of their enclosure in a torrent of murky water. Coco says they are now safe on higher ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d left them in the pen, they\u2019d have drowned,\u201d Coco said. \u201cThey were happy to see me.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno posted a video on Facebook describing relatively minor damage and cleanup efforts. Ahead of the storm, police prepared boats and set up barricades in flood-prone areas. They also opened sandbag distribution sites across Louisiana.<\/p>\n

Just across the Mississippi River in Avondale, a tornado wrecked four homes, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Rachel Strassel said. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries and later released.<\/p>\n

The Midwest was also dealing with damage after a strong line of storms.<\/p>\n

A tornado was reported Wednesday evening near Effingham, Illinois, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Springfield. Several people suffered minor injuries, officials said.<\/p>\n

Firefighters responded to damaged homes, collapsed structures, car crashes, downed power lines, gas leaks and blocked roads, Effingham Fire Chief Brant Yochum said.<\/p>\n

The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, confirmed two tornadoes, including one Wednesday with maximum winds of 116 mph (186.8 kph) in the Charleston area. The EF2 tornado lifted the roof off a home and flipped a semi-truck, injuring one person.<\/p>\n

Marla Washburn and her husband, Todd, hunkered down in their basement as a suspected tornado tore through their neighborhood about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north in Blue Mound. They could hear debris smacking into their house and a school across the street lost its roof, which came crashing onto their home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole house shook,\u201d Washburn said in a phone interview, adding that the neighborhood looks like Armageddon.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t know whether to laugh or cry, but we\u2019re OK,\u201d she said. \u201cYou look at it and you go, \u2018I don\u2019t even know where to start to clean up.’\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur battered parts of the southeastern United States with drenching rains and strong wind on Thursday, tearing through buildings, flooding homes and launching water rescues along the Gulf Coast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1516631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1502,1447],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1516630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abc-heads","category-abc-national-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-06-21 03:32:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1516630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1516632,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1516630\/revisions\/1516632"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1516631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1516630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1516630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1516630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}