Texas News

Editor’s note: This is part of Drifting Toward Disaster, a Texas Observer series about life-changing challenges facing Texans and their rivers.  The Texas coast regularly experiences major storms and flood events with devastating consequences to those of us who live and work in their paths. As each storm passed in recent decades—Allison, Rita, Ike, Harvey, and more—hard lessons were learned and improvements initiated. Future storms are inevitable. With appropriate planning, we can minimize future flooding…

From Texas Tech Public Media: Residents of Matador are cleaning up after a deadly tornado struck the community, the second in a week to tear through a small Texas Panhandle town. The tornado was reported around 8 p.m. Wednesday. As of Thursday morning, emergency officials said four people were killed and ten were injured. Matador is a community of about 570 people 80 miles northeast of Lubbock. “Luckily, being a tight-knit community, everyone knows everyone,”…

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. At least four people are dead and nine are injured after a tornado hit Matador, a small town of nearly 800 people northeast of Lubbock, late Wednesday night. The tornado was brought on by several severe storms in the region. A video from a local stormchaser showed significant damage to the small town…

The town of Matador also suffered widespread damage. MATADOR, Texas — A line of severe storms produced what a meteorologist calls a rare combination of multiple tornadoes, hurricane-force winds and softball-sized hail in northwest Texas, killing at least four people and causing significant damage around the town of Matador. A supercell developed about 8 p.m. Wednesday near Amarillo before striking Matador, killing four people, injuring nine and causing widespread damage, said senior forecaster Matt Ziebell…

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. PERRYTON — Margarita Escobar was cooking dinner when she looked out her kitchen window and froze. She watched a massive tornado cross the highway and curve toward the neighborhood where she’s lived for more than 20 years. “We have a basement, but we couldn’t go to it because my dad is in a…

Tens of thousands of households and businesses in East Texas are without power amid a heat wave after severe storms hit the region early Friday morning. A tornado measuring a half-mile wide caused severe damage to homes in Panola County in East Texas before moving to northwest Louisiana. Gov. Greg Abbott has issued a disaster declaration for the area. The tornado and subsequent storms over the weekend caused major damage to power lines and power…