AUSTIN: A tornado ripped through the northern Texas town of Matador on Wednesday, killing four people and injuring several others while damaging at least a dozen buildings, officials said.

Touching down at 8pm local time, the “unprecedented tornado” brought high gusting and battering winds to the small community of about 600 residents, according to Lubbock Fire Rescue. The agency is one of multiple emergency crews from the region to join in search and rescue efforts.

At least ten people were transported to area hospitals, of which one died, law enforcement said at a news briefing on Thursday morning.

“A town of this size with such a small population, with the amount of damage that they experienced — it’s not only physical damage, but the economical and emotional impact that it will have on this town is very well significant,” Lubbock Fire Rescue Public Information Officer Derek Delgado said.

Video of the aftermath showed a string of homes flattened to a rubble and downed power lines. About two dozen emergency vehicles helped to illuminate the dark road in the video shared by the fire agency in nearby city of Lubbock.

Power was knocked out to a majority of customers in Motley County, according to PowerOutage.us. Matador is the county seat. Widespread outages stretched 130 miles (209 km) south of Matador. Crews hope to restore power in Matador by Friday evening after the storm damaged a substation.

The National Weather Service issued a warning about 8pm about a tornado heading toward Matador and urged residents to take cover.

Last week, Perryton, Texas, was struck by one or more tornadoes, which killed at least three people and injured dozens of others. Hundreds of homes, many of them in a trailer park, were damaged or destroyed.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2023