Severe weather on the horizon

with Jennifer Wadsworth | Assistant metro editor

Good afternoon! Here's a look at some of our top reads today.

Severe weather threat

It looks like the severe weather threat for Wednesday has increased for metro Baton Rouge, with gusts up to 70 mph and possible tornadoes, along with rain and hail. The storms are expected to reach Baton Rouge around noon then move east, getting to New Orleans and the north shore around 4 p.m.

Carlie Koliath Wells asked forecasters what to expect in the coming day. Here's what they told her. 

150K truckloads of dirt

The 19-mile West Shore Levee is designed to protect thousands of homes in St. Charles and St. John the Baptist parishes from a 100-year storm surge. But building a levee long and tall enough to withstand the deluge will require a few million cubic yards of high-quality clay, the U.S. Army Corps tells us — enough to fill three-fourths of the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans or more than 150,000 dump trucks. Where would all that dirt come from?

Here's David Mitchell with the scoop. 

He tried to escape

Police initially said a Hammond man killed in a trash compactor was unconscious — that he fell asleep in a dumpster he climbed into for warmth on a freezing January night. But a new coroner report concluded otherwise: that 42-year-old Jermaine Watts was still alive and tried to escape before being crushed to death by a trash compactor. 

James Finn has the story. 

Thanks for reading, and have a great day.