Storm barrels through Tiny Texas Town, at least 3 killed

A powerful storm hit the north Texas town of Matador on Wednesday night, killing at least three people, damaging about a dozen buildings and launching a search for people who may have been injured or trapped by debris, authorities said.

Matador, which has a population of about 600, is about 180 miles northwest of Dallas and was issued a tornado warning as the storm swept through the area around 8 p.m., said William Iwasko, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lubbock.

“Based on the damage,” he added, “there was most likely a tornado” in Matador, but that will be determined Thursday.

Matador Mayor Pat Smith, who also provides emergency medical services in the city, said in a short phone interview that at least three people had been killed, others may have been injured and there was “a lot of damage.”

Several businesses and homes were destroyed on the west side of the city, Mr Smith said, adding that rescuers had been pulling residents out of collapsed houses.

“It’s really bad,” Mr. Smith said when emergency services heard shouting directions in the background.

A live stream of the city from KWTV-DT, an Oklahoma City television station, appeared to show torn buildings as strong winds swayed phone lines and trees.

The storm came nearly a week after a tornado battered another Texas town, Perryton, killing three people and maiming dozens of mobile homes. That tornado was part of a ferocious series of storms that swept across the South last week.

The storm in Matador also came as a heat dome stalled over much of Oklahoma and Texas.

Texas officials issued an extreme heat warning for the Dallas-Fort Worth area, asking residents in the rest of the state to conserve electricity over fears that the power grid could collapse with triple-digit temperatures for several days.