SPC Stats
Path length: 7 miles
Width: 200 yards
Fatalities: 0
Injuries: 25
Rating: F4
Parish: St. John the Baptist
One of the strongest tornadoes to ever hit in Southeastern Louisiana occurred on December 6, 1983. The tornado was rated F4 on the Fujita Scale. This damage was found at the Belle Pointe Subdivision. Several homes had their foundations swept clean. Per Storm Data, the tornado was not given an F5 rating, “because the walls were nailed to the foundation, not bolted.”
Near the beginning of the track, the tornado moved right over East St. John High School causing considerable damage. Per Storm Data, the tornado caused “one wall to fail, the roof of a shop building to fail and windows to be blown out.” From there it hit two subdivisions including Belle Pointe. 25-30 homes were destroyed and major damage to over 100 more.
Per Storm Data, after leaving the second subdivision, the tornado moved through a farm field leaving suction swath marks. It also moved over a golf course. The tornado dissipated after crossing I-10.
There was a total of 25 injuries and zero fatalities with this event.
Tornado Path
SPC coordinates: Start: 30.07 / -90.52 End: 30.08 / -90.42
Note: Exact tornado path may not be straight and/or continuous.
Images Via Storm Data
Newspaper Clippings
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the SPC & NCDC Databases, the December 1983 Storm Data Publication and Thomas Grazulis in Significant Tornadoes and found the following differences:
Path Length:
- SPC/NCDC have a 7 mile path length.
- Grazulis and Storm Data have a length at 5 miles.
Sources:
December 1983 Storm Data Publication
Grazulis, Thomas P. (1993). Significant Tornadoes 1680-1991: A Chronology and Analysis of Events. St. Johnsbury, VT: The Tornado Project of Environmental Films. Page 1252.
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