Tropical storm remnants drench Gulf states after tornadoes hit the
Midwest
[June 19, 2026]
By JACK BROOK, DAVE COLLINS and DAVID FISCHER
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — 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.
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.
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.
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.
“Even by this region’s standards, that’s catastrophic rain,” Jones said.
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.
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.
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’s lived through many hurricanes and other storms, but never
witnessed thunder and lightning like this.
“It was unbelievable, it literally sounded like hell broke open,” Dubois
said. “I 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.”
The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue
crews, officials said.
One tornado had been confirmed in Avoyelles Parish in central Louisiana,
along with three others near New Orleans, the weather service said.
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 “to manage our resources and
allow our system to recover.” It urged residents to limit water use and
to fill pots and other containers before the water was shut off.
Amid relentless rainfall in central Louisiana, Cody Coco said he rescued
stranded workers — waist deep in water —- 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.
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Rail cars sit derailed at the CPKC New Orleans Yard in Metairie,
La., Thursday, June 18, 2026, after winds from Tropical Storm Arthur
moved through the area. (David Grunfeld/The Times-Picayune/The New
Orleans Advocate via AP)
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.
“If I’d left them in the pen, they’d have drowned,” Coco said. “They
were happy to see me.”
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.
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.
The Midwest was also dealing with damage after a strong line of
storms.
A tornado was reported Wednesday evening near Effingham, Illinois,
about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Springfield. Several
people suffered minor injuries, officials said.
Firefighters responded to damaged homes, collapsed structures, car
crashes, downed power lines, gas leaks and blocked roads, Effingham
Fire Chief Brant Yochum said.
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.
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.
“The whole house shook,” Washburn said in a phone interview, adding
that the neighborhood looks like Armageddon.
“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but we’re OK,” she said.
“You look at it and you go, ‘I don’t even know where to start to
clean up.'”
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