Severe Storm hits New Orleans, Damages Airport

Tornadoes early Thursday tore through New Orleans neighborhoods that were hit hard by Hurricane Katrina just five months earlier, collapsing at least one previously damaged house and battering the airport, authorities said.

Roofs were ripped off and utility poles came down, but no serious injuries were reported.

Electricity was knocked out at Louis Armstrong International Airport, grounding passenger flights and leaving travelers to wait in a dimly lit terminal powered by generators. The storm also ripped off part of a concourse roof, slammed one jet into another, and flipped motorized runway luggage carts.

Due to flooding in Terminal C, American Airlines was forced to operate temporarily out of Terminal B, the airline said in a statement on its Web site. Travelers departing New Orleans were advised to arrive at the airport early.

A line of severe thunderstorms moved across the area around 2:30 a.m. The storm collapsed at least one house in New Orleans´ hurricane-ravaged lakefront, police said. The wind also blew down a radio tower near a major thoroughfare, authorities said.