Friday, June 23, 2023
A powerful storm struck the northern Texas town of Matador on Wednesday night, killing at least four people, damaging about a dozen buildings and prompting a search for residents who might have been injured or trapped by debris, the authorities said. At least nine people were hurt.
The storm swept through the small town of about 600 residents as thousands of people across the region were sweltering in a triple-digit heat wave that may not ease until the Fourth of July, and as other storms earlier in the week spawned deadly tornadoes and punishing hail across the South.
A tornado warning was issued for Matador, roughly 300 miles northwest of Dallas, as the storm barreled through around 8 p.m., said William Iwasko, a National Weather Service meteorologist.
He said the damage suggested there was “most likely” a tornado, but that had not been confirmed as of early Thursday morning.
All residents of Matador had been accounted for, officials said Thursday morning, and the authorities were making sure nobody else was passing through when the storm hit.
It’s unclear how many people lost homes, said Sgt. Johnny Bures of the Texas Department of Public Safety, but he added that many people might have family nearby.
Matador is without power, Mr. Bures said, adding that electricity was expected to be restored by Friday evening or Saturday. More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power across Texas early Thursday morning after a series of storms this week, according to a tracking site.
The mayor of Matador, Pat Smith, who also provides emergency medical services in the town, said in a brief phone interview late Wednesday that there was “a whole lot of damage.”
Several businesses and homes were destroyed on the west end of town, he said, adding that rescuers had pulled people from collapsed houses.
It’s really, really bad, Mr. Smith said as emergency crews were heard shouting directions in the background.
Footage of Matador posted on Twitter by Jacob Riley, a meteorologist with the Lubbock television station KLBK, showed emergency workers moving across a landscape dotted with leveled structures.
The storm that hit Matador was part of a system that lashed northern Texas and parts of Colorado with thunderstorms and sheets of hail.
In Morrison, Colo., near Denver, a concert at the outdoor Red Rocks Amphitheater was delayed, then postponed because of a hailstorm.
Video footage showed concertgoers fleeing for shelter as rivulets of ice and water poured down staircases and lightning flashed in the sky.
Dozens of people were injured, and at least seven were hospitalized.
Parts of the region could see more extreme weather again on Thursday, mainly scattered thunderstorms and possibly damaging wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, as well as “Ping-Pong-ball-size” hail and heavy rain.
The chance of a tornado cannot be ruled out, forecasters said, especially in portions of Colorado.
Last week, a tornado pummeled the town of Perryton, Texas, where three people were killed and dozens of mobile homes were mangled. That tornado was part of a ferocious series of storms that swept across the South.
Scientists say that tornadoes seem to be occurring in greater “clusters” in recent years, and that the area of the country known as Tornado Alley, where most tornadoes occur, seems to be shifting eastward.
The storms come as a heat dome has stalled over much of Texas and Oklahoma, with forecasts saying that it could last at least through the July 4 holiday.
The heat is expected to become even more dangerous the longer it persists, forecasters with the Weather Prediction Center said.
Officials in Texas asked residents to conserve electricity amid concerns that several days of triple-digit temperatures could strain the power grid.
In Oklahoma, nearly 70,000 homes and businesses remain without power, mainly in the Tulsa area, after storms over the weekend that killed at least two people.
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
