NEW ORLEANS — Storm-weary Curtis Jefferson is homeless. Again.Hurricane Katrina destroyed his home in New Orleans' Gentilly neighbourhood more than 17 months ago. Hurricane Rita chased him from a friend's place in Lake Charles a month later. Now he is looking for yet another place to live after a tornado ripped holes in his government-issued trailer early Tuesday.

"It's just bad luck, man," Jefferson, 60, said as he waited in his battered car for a Federal Emergency Management Agency worker to inspect his Uptown trailer, his home for the last eight months.

FEMA workers fanned out across the area to assess the latest damage to the thousands of trailers that have been sheltering displaced residents since Katrina hit on August 29, 2005. The agency had counted at least 50 damaged trailers by Tuesday, but the number was expected to grow. An 85-year-old woman, Stella Chambers, was killed and at least 29 people were injured.

Chambers was almost out of her government-issued trailer. Only one utility hookup remained before she could once again live in her modest red brick home that had taken a year-and-a-half to rebuild after Katrina. Her rebuilt home was flattened by the tornado.

A preliminary report from the National Weather Service said that two tornadoes apparently touched down in New Orleans, both with winds of 113 mph to 158 mph and tracks about 50 yards wide. Hurricane Katrina had brought winds of up to 125 mph in the same area in 2005.

After Katrina, many questioned the wisdom of placing so many flimsy trailers along the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast. Tuesday's tornadoes confirmed many occupants' fears.

"Don't get one. They're no good," said Chris Usea, a 38-year-old insulation installer who miraculously came out nearly unscathed when the tornado tossed and crushed his FEMA trailer in Westwego like a soda can. "I came out with underwear, a T-shirt, no shoes."

Residents whose trailers were rendered uninhabitable by the latest storm will be provided with a hotel room or another trailer, according to FEMA.

Firefighters went door to door, once again searching for victims. They spray-painted bright orange rectangles on the buildings and trailers and, as with the circles searchers used after Hurricane Katrina, they listed the date of the search and whether bodies were found.

"Some of these houses still have the circle on them from the last search," resident Patrick Clementine said. "Now we're doing it again."

Gov. Kathleen Blanco issued a disaster declaration, a necessary step for Louisiana to seek aid from the federal government. She said the state would send in National Guard troops for security.

Valencia Williams has no clue where she, her eight-month-old baby and her fiance will be living. But she does know one place where they will not be staying: their FEMA trailer in Gretna.

Williams, who was asleep when the tornado drove a large board through the trailer only a few feet from her head, said she does not want to live in a trailer any more.

"It's just too scary," she said. "I keep thinking about what could have happened. I think, what if we made it through Katrina and got killed like that."

Gwendolyn Armstrong, 77, who walks with a cane after having her hip replaced, was sleeping in her Gretna trailer when she felt it starting to shake. By the time the storm had roared past, she had windows broken out, siding missing and one side of the trailer bashed in.

"I wasn't hurt, but I sure was scared," Armstrong said. "I had heart surgery and I have high blood pressure. I can't take much more of this, but what am I going to do?"

She is trying to repair her house, next to the trailer, but didn't get as much insurance money as she expected and hasn't received any government grant money to fix her home.

A FEMA employee could not tell her much.

"She said they have to go back and have meetings on it. We all know about those meetings," Armstrong said.