Clean-up and repairs were still ongoing Thursday in Union County following severe weather, including a confirmed tornado, that passed through the county on Wednesday.
In Parkers Chapel, crews could be seen on Wednesday shortly after noon clearing fallen and damaged trees and repairing power lines on Haynesville Highway.
Emergency Management Coordinator Bruce Goff said Wednesday that the path of the storm's damage stretched from "the Wesson Road area" and "up through Parkers Chapel and up to the southern end of El Dorado."
Michael Berry, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Shreveport, said Thursday afternoon that a tornado has been verified as the cause of the damage found southwest of El Dorado.
Weather service crews were still in the field surveying the damage and were expected to remain there until last night, however, and Berry did not speculate on the size, strength or precise path of the tornado.
The Salvation Army's Emergency Disaster Services van parked outside the First Baptist Church of Parkers Chapel starting around noon and began handing out hot meals and snacks to residents facing power outages or otherwise just tired and hungry from the ordeal.
Salvation Army Young People Sergeant Major Sherri Hutchison said just after 2 p.m. on Thursday that 74 meals had been served so far.
Salvation Army Major David Robinson added that the organization would return to the same location today if residents were still in need of the assistance.
Power outages were down to 161 Thursday afternoon across Union County from approximately 1,500 following the storm on Wednesday, according to the Entergy outage map for the county. The outage map on Thursday afternoon had an estimated restoration time of 10 p.m. Thursday night. Many of the outages were concentrated southwest of El Dorado, including 18 outages on Pleasant Hill Road and 94 in the Wesson community.
The National Weather Service in Shreveport reported late Wednesday night that an EF-1 tornado hit Waldo, in Columbia County, earlier that day. The tornado had maximum winds of 100 mph with a path length of 5.1 miles and a path width of 80 yards, according to the weather service.
Salvation Army YPSM Sherri Hutchison works on a hot meal in the organization's Emergency Disaster Services van on Thursday. The SA served at least 74 meals to residents from the parking lot of the First Baptist Church of Parkers Chapel. (Matt Hutcheson/News-Times)
Information for this article was contributed by Caitlan Butler of the El Dorado News-Times.