Havoc ensued for emergency responders Wednesday night and Thursday morning when dark crackling thunderstorms closed down major highways, caused at least 13 house fires and sent tree limbs scattering, a few crushing vehicles so bad occupants had to be cut out, authorities said.

The storm event, starting in Tangipahoa Parish and sweeping through St. Tammany, also brought reports of at least two tornados ravaging Folsom and Ponchatoula, Jim Vasilj, meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Slidell said. Testing to confirm the twisters wouldn’t be complete until today, but as of Thursday afternoon no injuries were reported, he said.

The storm, caused by numerous upper level disturbances that clashed with a warm front, dumped about 5 inches of water and marble-size hail throughout parts of Covington, Abita Springs and Mandeville, where the brunt of the storm lingered, Vasilj said.

Austin Sharp removes broken tree limbs from his roof near Folsom after storms sent them crashing down, crushing his camper and puncturing his roof. (Staff Photo by Chad Ruiz)

Lightening strikes and snapped tree limbs also damaged power lines, causing about 33,000 St. Tammany residents to lose power from providers Cleco Power LLC and Washington St. Tammany Electric cooperative, officials from each company said.

“Most of our guys worked through the entire night last night to fix the problem,” Scott Biggers, manager of customer and community services with Cleco, said. “They made a good dent, some good progress” before the second storm swath occurred Thursday morning and reversed their progress.

Cleco lost power to 20,000 homes Wednesday largely in west St. Tammany, Biggers said, and by midnight crews had restored electricity to all but 1,200 homes. But by 8:30 a.m. Thursday, the second storm band caused about 4,400 additional outages, Biggers said.

Those outages turned even more dangerous when at least 13 home fires were sparked by candles during the blackout, Sheriff’s Office spokesman George Bonnett said Thursday.

“What’s the first thing people do when the power goes out?” he asked. “They light candles, and then somebody knocks one over. It’s common in a storm like that.”

Meanwhile, Sheriff’s Office deputies and State Police closed down several major roadways, including Louisiana Highway 59 in Mandeville/Abita Springs and Louisiana Highway 21, connecting Covington to Madisonville, Bonnett said. Bayou Liberty Bridge on Louisiana 433, was also closed because of power failure, state transportation officials said.

Before those closures, several cars had stalled or careened into ditches off La. 59 at about 7:30 p.m. Law enforcement officers, dressed in ponchos and dripping water off their hats, attended to a few of the accident scenes. A few other motorists flicked on their hazard lights and pulled off roadways, seeming to wait for the storm to pass. Thick sheets of rain made it near impossible to see when driving.

In all, the Sheriff’s Office fielded more than 200 calls for aid in a three-hour period, more than double its regular intake, Bonnett said. About 20 of those calls were for vehicular accidents, “some with injuries, but nothing fatal,” Bonnett said.

Falling trees accounted for the most serious accidents, he said, with some cars crushed so bad by the thick branches, their drivers were trapped inside, he said. Firefighters were forced to cut out occupants with hyraulic “Jaws of Life” machines, capable of chewing away mangled metal, he said.

“We were just slammed with traffic calls,” Bonnett said.

Not all however, involved serious injury. Many of the calls came from residents concerned with speeding motorists pushing floodwater into their homes and yards, Bonnett said.

“If you have water already in your yard but it’s not flooded and a speeding motorists goes by and kicks up the wake, guess what? Your dry house now has water in it,” Bonnett said.

At Mandeville High School, however, it was cars, not homes, that seemed to flood. During the school’s annual ring ceremony for juniors Wednesday night, the school’s parking lot flooded with at least a foot of water, causing water to seep into at least “several” cars, School Board spokeswoman Linda Roan said. Other estimates place the amount of flooded cars as high as 200.

“This parking lot has never flooded before so it was a surprise,” she said.