By ROBIN SHANNON

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – For the second time in as many weeks, severe weather from an approaching frontal boundary produced damaging wind and rain in the St. John the Baptist Parish area Monday.

Trees were reported down in several areas across the east bank, including a home on Beechgrove Drive, where a large tree fell into the back of a home and through two rooms.

Dominique Graham, 24, was cooking in her kitchen around 9 p.m. when tree in a neighbor’s yard fell onto the house.

“I heard a big bang, and the house shook,” Graham said. “I grabbed my 10-month-old baby, ran into the bathroom and called my husband to come home.”

Graham said she could hear the wind whistling through the area for most of the evening before the tree fell. She said the storm kept slamming her screen door against the house.

“It was a distinct whistling noise right before the tree fell,” Graham said. “It was very scary.”

The tree cut through a utility room and bedroom at the home where Graham and her husband Aredean have lived for the last two years.

“I’m not sure what to do next,” Graham said. “I’m just glad we are OK.”

Wind speeds of more than 60 miles per hour were recorded throughout the parish during the storm Monday.

Last week, a line of thunderstorms produced a tornado that downed utility poles in the Reserve/Garyville area.