RAYNE, La.
Tornado leaves one dead, forces about 1,500 to leave
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A tornado slammed a southwestern Louisiana town Saturday, killing a woman and injuring 11 other people. More than 100 homes were damaged, many of them destroyed, authorities said, and about 1,500 people were evacuated because of natural gas leaks.
The 21-year-old woman was killed when a tree fell on her house, said Maxine Trahan, a spokeswoman for the Acadia Parish sheriff.
Debris was littered throughout Rayne, a town of about 8,500 people, after violent thunderstorms moved through the area and left behind a swath of damage about a quarter of a mile wide to three miles long. Pieces of homes were strewn about the tops of trees, and power lines were down. A U.S. Postal Service truck was flipped on its side.
Trahan said the natural gas leaks, which were later fixed, hindered an effort by authorities to count how many homes and businesses were damaged. About 1,500 people were ordered out of the area for the night, she said, because officials feared more gas leaks could occur. A shelter was set up at a fire station.
“There are houses that have been destroyed,” said State Police Trooper Stephen Hammons.
The National Weather Service sent a team to investigate and confirmed a tornado had struck the area.
The system that hit Rayne quickly moved east and drenched New Orleans, where several Mardi Gras parades either were delayed, started earlier or canceled.
MIAMI
Four killed as vehicle strikes victims of interstate accident
Four people were killed after they were struck by a car on a busy South Florida interstate.
Florida Highway Patrol officials said the victims were in a car accident early Saturday. They survived the crash and left their car to check on everyone’s condition. As they were walking along Interstate 95 in Miami, they were hit by a car.
Four people were killed instantly. Another pedestrian was hospitalized in critical condition.
TERRE HAUTE, Ind.
Pharmacist allegedly netted $3.5 million in fraud scheme
A federal prosecutor says a Terre Haute pharmacist faces a possible 10-year prison sentence if convicted of health care fraud and money laundering in a scheme that netted him more than $3.5 million.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Shepherd said a tip from an outside contractor uncovered information in an audit that prompted the investigation of John D. Love of the Terre Haute Prescription Shop by the FBI, the state’s Medicaid Fraud Enforcement Unit and other agencies.
Investigators said he’d enter bogus prescriptions in the Medicaid system, wait for claims to be submitted and then void them before others could see the orders weren’t filled.
Shepard said Love has been issued a summons to surrender.
A phone message seeking comment was left at Love’s Brazil, Ind., home.
CHESTERFIELD, S.C.
Rescuers: Dogs from shelter shot, buried in local landfill
Animal rescuers in South Carolina said Saturday that they have found two dogs believed to be from a local shelter shot in the head and buried at a landfill, and they suspect there may be more.
Whitney Knowlton, founder of Last Chance Animal Rescue Fund, said the two dogs were found Friday at a landfill. She said she believes that the dogs were from the county-run shelter and that they were killed by animal control officers.
Chesterfield County Sheriff Sam Parker told WSOC-TV, which first reported the story, that his office is investigating. A message left with a dispatcher for the sheriff’s office by The Associated Press was not immediately returned Saturday morning. The sheriff oversees animal control.
Knowlton said rescuers who regularly work with the shelter in Chesterfield, S.C., were tipped off by an inmate working there. The man told a rescuer that dogs were being taken to the landfill and shot.
Knowlton said activists want the state Law Enforcement Division to investigate the dead dogs.
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