New Orleans mayor: Half-mile wide tornado damaged 940 homes

NEW ORLEANS -- Dwight Powell lost his Lexus to the massive tornado that injured 33 people and destroyed or severely damaged 940 properties on a half-mile-wide rampage through two miles of east New Orleans.

He had just parked it inside his garage to avoid hail damage when the twister struck. At least his Yukon pickup truck would be OK, he thought: It was in a friend's repair shop, 60 miles north.

Then his phone rang.

"The man called me this morning and said, 'Man, the tornado hit your truck,'" Powell said Wednesday.

That's a bad joke to tell a friend who just lost his house, he told him.

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