A National Weather Service storm survey team says a tornado that struck St. Tammany Parish Wednesday was upgraded to an EF-2 with maximum winds of 120 miles per hour.
The tornado touched down shortly after 10 a.m. one mile north of Eden Isle and tracked east-northeast with mainly tree damage before moving towards Ponchartrain Drive, causing damage to businesses.
"This damage included a business with all windows blown out, minor roof damage to metal buildings, and snapped power poles," said the NWS. "It then continued on through a neighborhood causing mainly tree damage and minor roof damage to homes."
From there, the NWS said the tornado moved onto Old Spanish Trail, where the worst of the damage occurred.
"A metal business building had failure of roof purlins and metal beams bent. Across the street from this metal business building, two apartment buildings suffered moderate roof damage," the NWS report detailed. "The tornado then continued on causing mostly tree damage and minor roof damage to apartments in the Fremaux area."
"It crossed I-10 and continued to cause additional tree damage before it moved through a few neighborhoods just north and south of US-190, causing damage to a few homes roofs. The damage to these roofs was caused by the failure connection between the walls and the roof. Finally it tracked through the Pearl River Wildlife Management Area before snapping a billboard off of Interstate 10 near the Louisiana-Mississippi border," the report concluded.
In all, the tornado's track covered just over nine miles.