LEONARD GRAY and ERIK SANZENBACH / L’Observateur / September 3, 2000

Thursday afternoon’s thunderstorm in St. Charles and St. John the Baptistparishes brought strong winds and small hail and left many residents without power.

But as bad as it was, it wasn’t bad enough to stop the opening of the 2000 high school football season in the River Parishes.

Bertram Madere, director of Civil Defense in St. John Parish, reported thathigh winds during the late afternoon storm caused minor to medium damage throughout the parish.

“We had a lot of trees knocked down in the River Forest Subdivision, and they knocked down power lines,” said Madere.

Madere said about 4,000 parish residents were without electrical power for a few hours. And one River Forest resident reported her power did not returnuntil 8:30 a.m. Friday.At one point during the storm the wind was clocked at 48 mph at Civil Defense headquarters in LaPlace. Madere said he got reports of some roofdamage on houses in northwest Reserve.

“Most of it was branches and tree damage,” said Madere. “Considering theforce of the winds, not as many electrical lines went down as we would have thought.”According to the incident reports from the St. John Parish Sheriff’s Office,police had a busy time of it during the storm.

Trees fell across Melrose Drive, Carmel Valley Drive and Fir Street. Therewere also reports of roofs being blown off buildings on Railroad Avenue in Reserve. Lightning hit a house on Shearwater Drive, and there were reportsof downed power lines starting fires in trees.

In Reserve, police responded to a call on West 15th Street in which a cart was hurled threw the air and hit two parked cars.

The winds were high but the rain wasn’t heavy in St. Charles Parish, according to Emergency Preparedness Director Tab Troxler.

“It knocked down some trees and power lines,” Troxler reported of the two- hour storm, which struck that parish at 4:55 p.m. “The Kansas CitySouthern railroad crossing in Montz was blocked by a fallen tree, but it was soon cleared up.”The storm swept through southeast Louisiana, affecting mostly Montz, Norco, Des Allemands, Bayou Gauche, Paradis and Boutte, said Troxler.

One deputy also reported spotting a funnel cloud in the Norco area, but no tornados touched down.

Even when the storm was over the wind whipped occasionally and lightening continued in the distance.

And at Riverside Academy, the Rebels hosted rival St. Charles Catholic HighSchool and stormed to a 40-15 opening-game victory.

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