At least 50 people in Madison Parish were injured when Saturday’s tornado destroyed 12 homes in the Willow Bayou subdivision west of Tallulah and flattened a chemical plant near the Madison Parish Port.

“The injuries were not real serious; we were really lucky,” said Maj. Neal Horath of the Madison Parish Sheriff’s Office. “We had so many injuries that the Madison Parish Hospital couldn’t treat them all, and they had to send the people to East Carroll Parish, Vicksburg and Delhi.”

At nightfall Saturday, Horath said, about 12 of the 50 people injured in the parish remained at area hospitals.

Horath said the first call of a tornado being spotted came into emergency dispatch operations at 11:12 a.m. “Ten minutes later, the calls started coming in that houses were down to the ground.”

Ten people were at work when the tornado hit Complex Chemical, which makes automotive fluids, near the Mississippi River Levee north of Tallulah on Port Road, which leads to the Madison Parish Port.

They all got out, but three or four had “minor injuries” and had to be taken to hospitals for treatment, he said.

Liquid nitrogen, which can cause a severe “cold burn” when it comes in contact with a person, leaked from the chemical plant, Horath said.

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and officials with Homeland Security were on site Saturday night to assess damage and plot the chemical’s cleanup.

Horath said utility poles and trees were down across the parish and up to 1,000 people in Madison Parish were without electricity.

He said many state and local agencies assisted in the rescue efforts.

“The Louisiana State Police, East Carroll Parish workers and sheriff’s office were very helpful,” Horath said. “Neighbors, logging companies brought in skidders, chain saws and bulldozers” to help clear the streets.

An American Red Cross shelter was set up at Willow Bayou Baptist Church, 1008 Willow Bayou Road.

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Contact Manivanh Chanprasith at mchan@vicksburgpost.com