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A4 U.S. NEWS
Thursday 15 december 2022

U.S. storm brings tornadoes, blizzard-like conditions; 2 dead

By JAKE BLEIBERG and KEV- a neighboring trailer park
IN MCGILL with about 10 homes. “It
Associated Press happened quick,” Crow
KEITHSVILLE, La. (AP) — A said Wednesday, adding
volatile storm ripping across that about 30 homes were
the U.S. spawned torna- damaged along nearby
does that killed a young Lake D’Arbonne.
boy and his mother in Loui- Shannon Futch, Union Par-
siana, smashed mobile ish’s emergency director,
homes and chicken houses said there were reports of
in Mississippi and threat- numerous people treated
ened neighboring Southern for cuts and bruises and at
states with more punishing least two people hospital-
weather Wednesday. ized after a twister cut a
To the north, the huge storm swath of damage about
system delivered blizzard- 5 miles (8 kilometers) long,
like conditions to the Great toppling trees onto about a
Plains and was expected dozen houses.
to push more snow and ice “Some people even stayed
into Appalachia and New the night in their houses
England. The wintery blast that had big pine trees on
dumped more than 2 feet them,” Futch said. “They
(61 centimeters) of snow in didn’t have anywhere to
parts of South Dakota. Crews survey damage from a possible tornado in Grapevine, Texas, Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2022. go.”
In northern Louisiana, it Associated Press A suspected tornado re-
took hours for authorities to ported in New Iberia in
find the bodies of a mother ered one street over from Alabama. More damaging “I am heartbroken to learn southwest Louisiana dam-
and child reported missing where their mobile home weather was possible in the of the mother and child aged several buildings on
after a tornado struck the stood. When deputies ar- Florida panhandle. who were killed in South- the campus of New Iberia
rural Keithville community rived at their address, they A steady stream of torna- west Caddo Parish due to Medical Center, hospital
near Shreveport on Tues- found nothing but a con- do warnings were issued one of numerous reported officials said, and left five
day afternoon. crete slab, said sheriff’s Sgt. Wednesday across portions tornadoes,” Edwards said people with minor injuries.
The Caddo Parish Coro- Casey Jones. of Louisiana, Mississippi and in a statement as he de- In neighboring Mississippi,
ner’s Office said the body “I wouldn’t even know if Alabama. In Keithsville, clared a state of emer- suspected tornado de-
of 8-year-old Nikolus Little they knew a house was Louisiana, where the two gency Wednesday, saying stroyed four large chicken
was found around 11 p.m. there to begin with,” Jones deaths occurred, sheriff’s at least six tornadoes had houses one of which held
Tuesday in a wooded area. told The Associated Press deputies restricted access touched down in several 5,000 roosters in Rankin
His mother, Yoshiko A. on Wednesday. to the area where the sus- parishes. County, Mississippi, Sheriff
Smith, 30, was found dead The forecast Wednesday pected tornado touched In Union Parish, on Louisi- Bryan Bailey said. Mobile
under storm debris around called for more severe down. Downed trees, ana’s northern border with homes at a park in Sharkey
2:30 a.m. Wednesday. storms with additional tor- some that appeared to be Arkansas, Farmerville May- County, Mississppi, were re-
Sheriff Steve Prator said nadoes expected across ripped up by their roots, lit- or John Crow said a Tues- duced to piles of shredded
their home was destroyed an area of the Gulf Coast tered the landscape. Louisi- day night tornado badly debris. Resident Leslie Jack-
and the boy ended up a region populated by near- ana Gov. John Bel Edwards damaged an apartment son told WLBT-TV her home
half-mile away, while his ly 3 million people from planned to tour the area complex where 50 fami- was one of only a couple
mother’s body was discov- New Orleans to Mobile, Wednesday afternoon. lies lived and wiped out left standing.q

Census Bureau tables controversial privacy tool for survey

By MIKE SCHNEIDER than 40 topics ranging from method would be applied would jeopardize the us- 3.5 million homes.
Associated Press income, internet access, to American Community ability of numbers that are The Census Bureau has said
The U.S. Census Bureau on rent, disabilities and lan- Survey data by 2025. Dif- the foundation of the na- that the differential priva-
Wednesday said it was put- guage spoken at home, ferential privacy algorithms tion’s data infrastructure. cy algorithms are needed
ting on hold plans to ap- the statistical agency said add intentional errors to The 2020 census question- since, without them, the
ply by 2025 a controversial in a blog post. data to obscure the identi- naire asked limited ques- growth of easily available
method for protecting the “It’s also not clear that dif- ty of any given participant. tions about race, Hispanic third-party data combined
privacy of participants in ferential privacy would ulti- It is most noticeable at the background, sex, age, with modern computing
its most comprehensive mately be the best option,” smallest geographies, such household relationships could allow hackers to
survey of Americans af- wrote Donna Daily, chief of as census blocks. and whether a home is piece together the iden-
ter facing pushback from the American Community Prominent demographers owned or rented during the tities of participants in its
prominent researchers and Survey Office. The Census and other researchers had head count of very U.S. resi- censuses and surveys in
demographers. Bureau embraced using asked in a letter to Cen- dent. The American Com- violation of the law. Bureau
The science doesn’t yet ex- differential privacy algo- sus Bureau Director Robert munity Survey, on the other statisticians will continue to
ist to apply differential pri- rithms for the first time with Santos last summer that the hand, is much more com- study privacy methods for
vacy algorithms to the an- the release last year of the agency drop plans to use plex because of the almost the American Community
nual American Community first round of 2020 census the algorithms on future four dozen topics it covers Survey, the statistical agen-
Survey, which covers more data, and it had said the data releases, claiming it when sampling residents in cy said.q