MANDEVILLE, La. — Some St. Tammany Parish neighbors spent the day cleaning up after heavy winds knocked down a few trees and sent debris flying.
People in Mandeville’s Deval subdivision were busy clearing away remnants from Tuesday’s late afternoon storm.
“The rain came on really, really hard, heard some things dropping, the lights flashed a few times, then the power went out all of a sudden,” Jason Olivier said.
Olivier shot cellphone video of the storm as it passed over his house on Highland Drive.
“The power stayed out for about an hour and a half,” Olivier said. “Once the rain stopped and we came outside, we started seeing lots of branches down. We started seeing lots of pinecones down, needles everywhere.”
Jimmy Boulanguer lives around the corner on Deval Street.
“Some trees and a lot of leaves everywhere,” Boulanguer said. “I cleaned it all this morning. The streets here were very, very scary.”
About 5 miles away on Viola Street, a large pine tree landed on a house, splitting the roof down the middle.
It didn’t appear the owner was home at the time.
According to the National Weather Service, it was straight line winds associated with the strong thunderstorm, rather than a tornado that did the damage.
Just a day after heavy rain and high wind moved through Mandeville, St. Tammany Parish unveiled a new enhanced public alert system called STAT. It has the capability of notifying residents in a targeted area about a possible life-threatening event such as severe weather or a boil water advisory.
“We’re really trying to encourage our citizens to sign up,” St. Tammany spokesman Michael Vinsanau said. “It’s just another tool in our tool belt when it comes to emergency preparedness and making sure our citizens are prepared and we’re prepared as well.”
St. Tammany residents can sign up for STAT by visiting www.stpgov.org/STAT or by downloading the Everbridge app.
► Get breaking news from your neighborhood delivered directly to you by downloading the new FREE WWL-TV News app now in the IOS App Store or Google Play.