Stats
Path length: 8.6 miles
Width: 150 yards
Fatalities: 2
Injuries: 32
Rating: F3
Parish: St. John the Baptist
Tornado Path
SPC coordinates: Start: 30.07 / -90.45 End: 30.12 / -90.62
Corrected Coordinates based on damage and satellite analysis:
Start: 30.06 / -90.47 End: 30.09 / -90.60
Introduction
On August 25, 1992, just one day before Hurricane Andrew made its third and final landfall, the towns of LaPlace and Reserve, LA were struck by one of the strongest tornadoes ever produced by a hurricane. This twister, spawned by the outer bands of Hurricane Andrew, carved a nine-mile path through both communities late into the night. Tragically, it took the lives of two people, and 32 were injured.
Hurricane Andrew
Hurricane Andrew, the strongest of the 1992 season, is one of the most infamous. Andrew made a name for itself upon its first landfall in The Bahamas as a Category 5, where it destroyed nearly 800 homes and killed four people on August 23. The following day, Andrew’s second landfall occurred just south of Miami, FL, again as a Category 5 with wind speeds nearing 165 miles per hour. Mass destruction occurred in southeastern Florida, with nearly $55 billion (adjusted for inflation) worth of damages. In Florida alone, over 100,000 homes were destroyed, 44 people lost their lives, and countless more were injured.
Andrew then made its third and final landfall near Morgan City, LA, as a Category 3 during the early hours of August 26. In Louisiana, the cyclone inflicted massive crop loss along the southern coast. Additionally, there was a wide swath of structural damage across nearly all of the south-central and southeastern parts of the state. In total, Andrew caused almost $1 billion worth of structural and agricultural damage in Louisiana and caused seven fatalities.
Tornado Summary
The tornado formed at 8:10 pm CST in the middle of an open farm field near the Sandy Nook Mobile Home Park on the southeastern edge of LaPlace. Traversing west, it missed the trailer park to its south. Little to no damage was done as the vortex crossed Airline Highway near its intersection with Walnut Street. The twister remained relatively weak for around a mile, where it primarily tossed pieces of sheet metal and knocked branches down from trees as it moved closer to the south-central part of LaPlace.
North of the intersection of 5th and Main Streets, the tornado slowly began to intensify. Here, it approached the historic Montz’s Ice and Vegetable packing factory, a tin structure built around the early 1920s. The small plant, which still had equipment inside, was blown over, allowing pieces of tin, tools, and equipment to be thrown around.
The vortex continued to damage trees and roofs between the packing factory and the Riverland Estates subdivision. In the latter, the worst destruction in LaPlace took place. The first signs of notable devastation started around Mahogany Street, where it was strong enough to blow down trees, move cars, and continue tearing up pieces of roofs.
After damaging parts of Mahogany Street, the twister set its crosshairs on Holly Drive. This street circles a small lake that Riverland Estates was built around. We interviewed longtime LaPlace resident Dean Wild. He and his family were at their home on the eastern side of Holly Drive. Dean and his parents were finishing putting up wooden boards in front of their windows, as did most people around this area before a hurricane struck. Then they looked out of their front door and saw “a massive dark cloud rushing towards them, hollering like a train.” Once they had realized what they were looking at, it was as if the spiraling winds pulled the door handle from them and shut it with ferocious force. Dean and his family quickly got down and took cover as it barreled through. Fortunately, the tornado narrowly missed their house, only doing shingle damage and breaking a few windows. Nearby, his neighbors lost a small part of their roof.
As the vortex moved past the eastern side of Holly Drive, it crossed the lake, tossing the remaining pieces of tin and tools from the packing factory into the water. Once it reached the shore, it struck the western edge of Holly Drive, where it clipped the residence of Dr. Robert Ory Jr., whom we interviewed for this narrative. He was home with his wife and ten children. They were finishing chores around the dwelling before bed when he noticed a “low train-like hum” that became louder and louder by the second. Once the Ory’s realized what the noise was coming from, they wasted no time. They got downstairs, hunkered down, and prayed for their safety. Luckily for the family, the twister narrowly skimmed their house. Part of their eastern wall sustained damage, and a small chunk of their roof was torn out.
Just next door, the Habisreitingers were hit dead on. The entire roof came off the home, along with the second-story ceiling. Due to the sudden nature of the devastating vortex, the family did not have much time to take shelter. Their daughter was stuck in the stairwell, hanging on as if her life depended on it, while the tornado was directly above. Quickly, it moved over them, fortunately not harming anyone while leaving their house in disrepair.
The twister shifted northwest towards Fir Street, where it significantly weakened. After inflicting minimal damage near the intersection of Cedar and West 5th Streets, the whirlwind returned to its original west-northwestern track and headed towards the north portion of Reserve. The tornado struck the south end of the River Parishes Hospital, puncturing a hole in the back part of the roof. Consequently, rainfall and debris got inside, forcing the medical center to evacuate its staff and patients to a nearby facility. The vortex quickly moved past the hospital and narrowly missed the East St. John Preparatory Academy as it entered, at the time, the city limits of Reserve.
The ferocious whirlwind intensified rapidly as it entered the Belle Pointe Subdivision. It first damaged the southern part of Breaux Drive, where a home was obliterated. Other houses on this street suffered severe roof damage and broken windows. Soon after, it caused even more devastation along Belle Pointe Boulevard.
Carlos Cabrera, 63, was securing his home for the hurricane overnight with his small dog, Muchacho. His wife, Irma, was helping her daughter, Miriam with her children in New Orleans. Miriam was able to call her father at around 6:30 pm, just mere hours before the tornado struck. He suggested that they come home and stay the night in Reserve, but his family decided to stay in New Orleans. Carlos had to hang up the phone because a city worker knocked on his door, recommending evacuation, but he refused.
As Carlos was getting ready for bed, the tornado struck and blew down the bedroom walls, pinning him inside. Sadly, Carlos was found deceased the following morning as search crews combed the area.
The news of Carlos’ passing didn’t reach Irma until Thursday morning after she heard about the tornado on the radio. She returned to Belle Pointe South with Miriam, where they both took in the horrifying scenes. Their dog Muchacho came running up and down the street, barking at National Guard personnel.
According to The Tampa Tribune, who interviewed the mother and daughter, they were happy to see the dog but were surprised that he survived such carnage. Miriam reflected on the phone call with her father. “He was just stubborn and he didn’t want to go. Said he was staying at the house.” While reminiscing about his memory, they both talked about how Carlos was a construction worker by trade. He was an avid fisherman and, just two nights prior, cooked fish at Miriam’s home. Just a couple of days later, on Saturday, August 29, Carlos was laid to rest as his family and friends said their final goodbyes.
Not far from the Cabrera’s was the residence of Teresa and Danny Tomlinson. The young couple was home with their two children, Heidi and Jessica, along with the kids’ grandfather, Otto. Similarly to the Cabrera’s, the twister knocked the exterior walls onto the house, trapping the two children and grandfather. As the vortex passed, a brave neighbor saw the mangled home and steadily began digging through the wreckage. They were able to find and pull the trapped Tomlinson’s out of the rubble. With noticeable wounds, they all were rushed to a nearby hospital. Heidi, 5, and Otto were treated for minor scratches and bruises. Jessica had suffered significant injuries to both her head and chest, causing her to slip in and out of consciousness before falling into a coma. Over the next six days, Jessica was in and out of surgeries and treatments before she ultimately passed away on Monday, August 31. She was two years old.
The family decided to hold a funeral service at a local catholic church on September 3, where nearly 100 people came to show love and support for the grieving Tomlinsons. Gary Hall, a manager at a debt recovery firm in Metairie named Clovis and Roche, was introduced to the Tomlinsons through two of his secretaries at his office. When he heard what had happened to little Jessica, he generously offered to help in any way he could and assisted the mourning family with funeral and moving expenses. Additional businesses also assisted financially with the funeral and even provided them with a hotel to stay at.
While at the funeral, Teresa and Danny remembered vividly a picture they had of Jessica holding a book, pretending to read. Despite being illiterate due to her age, the young girl loved attempting to understand the words in front of her. “She’d spend hours just looking through books,” said Jessica’s aunt. The article by The Times-Picayune stated that she also loved Hot Wheels, Baby Huey, and most especially, her Steve Urkel doll. The Tomlinsons ultimately moved to Florida, where they could be close to family and distance themselves from their tragedy. “The family’s just devastated. They have nothing left,” Gary Hall said. “Not only did they lose their home and all their possessions, they also lost a major part of their family. There’s nothing left for them in LaPlace.” Before leaving for Florida, the young couple decided to cremate the body of young Jessica with a Steve Urkel doll in hand. “That’s why they wanted to have her body cremated,” said Hall, “so she could go with them to Florida as well.”
Once the carnage in Belle Pointe ended, the twister crossed the field to the west of the neighborhood and tossed what was left of the decimated homes into it. Next, the tornado made its way toward a row of streets on the north part of Reserve. On Jean Marie Street, significant tree damage occurred. Trailers that weren’t evacuated for Hurricane Andrew were blown over. It then hit East 22nd Street and moved over into Hickory Street, where it ravaged trees and wrecked an older home into disrepair. Soon after, it moved into Homewood Place, where the winds destroyed multiple dwellings that, to this day, still haven’t been rebuilt. Then, after tearing up a couple of residences on the East 12th Street Extension, the twister hit two trailer parks, causing any remaining mobile homes to be tossed around. Those inside were injured, but no fatalities occurred in this area. The vortex swiped the upper portion of Emma Drive before moving onto the northern parts of Central Avenue and Cedar Drive, where houses were destroyed. One residence, which had weak anchoring, was picked up from its foundation and moved across the street.
Soon after, the tornado crossed Airline Highway again as it shifted toward the northwest. Avoiding residential areas, it clipped the River Parishes Community College and a small piece of the Port of South Louisiana Executive Regional Airport. The funnel then tore up farmland in an open field and moved into the swamp on the far north part of Reserve. The tornado finally dissipated just south of I-10.
In Loving Memory
Carlos E. Cabrera, 63
Jessica Danielle Tomlinson, 2
Photos from Tim Marshall
Newspaper Clippings
Acknowledgments
A special thank you to Tim Marshall for providing information and damage photographs. Also, thank you to the LaPlace Talk Facebook Group for delivering important information, such as individual streets that were hit and the names of those who may have been affected. Lastly, thank you to Dr. Robert Ory Jr. and Dean Wild for telling us their personal stories regarding being hit by the tornado via interviews.
Discrepancies:
We gathered information for this event from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC) and through damage/satellite analysis, and found the following differences:
Path Length:
- SPC lists a path length of 9 miles.
- Damage and satellite analysis put the path length closer to 8.6 miles.
Start Location:
- SPC lists a start location at 30.07/-90.45.
- Damage and satellite analysis put the start location closer to 30.06/-90.47.
End Location:
- SPC lists an end location at 30.12/-90.62.
- Damage and satellite analysis put the end location closer to 30.09/-90.60.
Sources
The sources compiled in our research for this summary can be found here.
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