This is beyond heartbreaking.

As many of you know, most of our area in Northwest Louisiana was under a tornado watch/warning for most of the evening yesterday. The storm came and dealt massive amounts of damage to our area, mostly in the town of Keithville.

Today, Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator confirmed the horrible news that a 30-year-old mother and her 8-year-old son were unfortunately killed by the powerful tornado.

Caddo Parish Sheriff Steve Prator says their husband and father was at work when the storm struck, and he came home to try to find them.

“When I first got to the command post at about 6 o’clock right after it struck, he was the first person I talked to and he couldn’t get down the road to check on his family, reported them missing,” Prator said.

Prator said he sent about 20 deputies to go look for the house, but they couldn’t find it.

“We had to go back and actually get the man and show us where the house was and the house was gone, was the reason we couldn’t find it,” Prator said and added the search was difficult and took a long time because of the amount of damage in the neighborhood.

“At ten-thirty we found the child deceased in the woods, and about 2:30 in the morning we found the mother about 200 yards away from where the home used to be, so it was a horrible situation,” Prator said.

Authorities have not yet released the father and husband’s identity. Prator said there was one serious injury reported, four homes destroyed, and at least twenty others damaged.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Yoshiko Smith, Nikolus Little, and their entire family during this terrible time.