ROSELAND, La. — The National Weather Service confirms that an EF-1 tornado touched down in Roseland Wednesday night.
Meteorologists were on the ground the next morning, surveying the damage caused by the storm to determine how strong it was. They look for uprooted trees and damaged homes to determine how strong the storm was and follow the path it took.
They also talk to people like Joe Pardue, who was home when the tornado touched down just outside. He said it was unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
“Wind started blowing real hard and heavy, it got loud, I heard the house shaking and next thing you know we hear the roof of this thing peel off,” he said, standing by what’s left of his back patio. “The bedroom window broke, laundry window broke, and I said ‘hunker down!’”
Thankfully, Pardue and his son weren’t hurt. Four trees were uprooted from his yard and his back patio was completely destroyed. Luckily, his home is relatively undamaged.
That damage is a starting point for National Weather Service meteorologists to determine how strong Wednesday’s tornado was.
Julie Lesko, senior service hydrologist for the National Weather Service in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, was on the ground in Roseland to survey the damage.
“The trees are uprooted and some of them are actually snapped off so we’re looking at damage from a low-end EF-1,” Lesko said.
The EF, or Enhanced Fujita, Scale is based on how much damage a tornado caused. At Pardue’s home, his back patio was destroyed and four trees surrounding his home were ripped from the ground, but the main part of his house was relatively undamaged. That’s how meteorologists knew to call this an EF-1 tornado.
What Pardue cares about most though, is that no one was hurt. Something he’s thankful for after a terrifying night.
“We’re blessed to be above ground,” he said. “We’re more fortunate than a lot that go through this type of stuff.”