SLIDELL, La. — A 9-mile-long, EF-2 tornado touched down in Slidell on Wednesday with the 120 miles per hour wind speeds, bending metal beams and blowing off the roofs of apartment buildings, with the National Weather Service now upgrading the tornados severity.
The tornado that touched had been previously reported by NWS as an EF-1, whose winds could be up to 110 mph. The weather agency upgraded that assessment on Thursday, after surveying the path of the tornado which damaged Northshore businesses, apartment buildings, houses and trees.
The "EF2 tornado touched down 1 mile north of Eden Isle and tracked east-northeast," NWS said on Thursday. "It crossed onto Old Spanish Trail where the worst of the damage occurred."
The funnel was apparently so strong that the winds damaged metal buildings and beams in Slidell, before knocking over trees and damaging insecure roofs in the Fremaux section of the city.
"The damage to these roofs was caused by the failure connection between the walls and the roof," NWS said Thursday.
The tornado apparently ended its path in Pearl River, where the fast winds knocked over a billboard on I-10, near the Louisiana-Mississippi border.