Following a deadly tornado that killed four and injured roughly a dozen individuals in Matador, located in Motley County Wednesday evening around 8 p.m., the City of Levelland sent a nine-member crew after receiving a mutual aid response request.
A Department of Public Safety report stated the Matador Community completed their search and recovery of victims from the deadly tornado Wednesday around 7 p.m.
Individuals reported to have lost their lives were identified as Jo Etta Bumgardner, 85, of Matador; Randell Rolin, 59, of Purcell, Oklahoma; Victor Valenzuela, 43, of Austin; and Troy Hernandez, 23, of San Angelo.
The damage of property reported was 29 structures destroyed, 11 with significant damage and 23 with damage. Roughly 61 properties were affected by the storm.
Levelland and Hockley County Emergency Coordinator Cole Kirkland explained that they received the mutual aid request from Matador at 8:48 p.m. and a nine-member collapsed structure team or heavy rescue team was enroute to the small town with a population of roughly 600 citizens located 80 miles northeast of Lubbock.
By 10:27 p.m. the team was on route with a rescue truck, a collapsed structure trailer and two command vehicles. Also lending aid was the City of Lubbock as they received the request as well. By 5:30 a.m. the Levelland rescue team was released from the scene and had began their return home.
Kirkland explained the process that happens when boots are on the ground is the initial or primary search of the areas affected to ensure that everybody is accounted for. Once that beginning step is completed, they do a reset and conduct another search for those individuals who may not live in the area such as a transient individuals driving through the town who got caught in the storm.
Once everyone is accounted for in the first sweep, the second is generally conducted in the daylight because the searching party is looking for individuals who were involved by chance.
“The second sweep is a very crude process because a lot of the time it’s a body recovery, not a rescue,” said Kirkland. “Trying to save a soul is a rescue, but when you transition from trying to find a soul to finding a body it is called recovery. The second sweep is usually a recovery piece to make sure that we get everybody picked up and accounted for so they can be identified, and their family can be notified.”
Preliminary reports based off of damage suggest the strength of the tornado was an EF4. The National Weather Service will travel to Matador and conduct a true study and pinpoint the specifics of the storm.
Once the initial sweeps are completed, is when the actual clean-up occurs, but Kirkland says the town of Matador has a long way to go. Currently, the power has been restored to 80% of the town as of Thursday at 9:30 p.m.
City and county officials of Matador thanked all the people from surrounding cities and counties for their overwhelming support and outpouring of food, water. and supplies. The report states Matador does not have any unmet needs at this time and would ask that people stop sending water, food and supplies as they cannot store any more supplies. Please do not donate clothing to this relief effort. Officials are not equipped to store or categorize those types of donations.
For people wanting to offer donations, an account has been set up through Happy State Bank under the name of Matador Relief Fund.
Currently in the heart of storm season, ranges of thunderstorms have shown to be more isolated and less spread out as they roll across West Texas.
“With the storms not being widespread, we’re having severe isolated incidents like Perryton and Matador,” said Kirkland. “As the energy in the atmosphere is so isolated when it’s developing that means they’re going into enhanced thunderstorms.”
Thunderstorms range from general, marginal, slight and then enhanced which is where the most damage can be done. Kirkland added that he was not sure how many tornadoes dropped from the enhanced storm, but the storm could fall into the worst-case scenario category.
Governor Greg Abbott updated the state’s disaster declaration for Matador and other Texas communities Thursday, that continue to be impacted by severe storms and tornadoes causing significant damage to homes and businesses. The disaster declaration will continue to support Texas’ response and recovery efforts to extensive damages in 21 Texas counties, including the following counties: Motley, Nolan, Fisher, Jones, Kent, and Stonewall counties.
“There is no force more powerful than Texans helping Texans, and this updated disaster declaration will help the State of Texas swiftly respond to communities devastated by the severe weather and tornadoes in West Texas,” said Governor Abbott. “I ask all Texans to join Cecilia and me as we pray for the Matador community and families who tragically lost a loved one during the horrific storm. I thank all of our brave first responders and emergency response personnel who are working to help their fellow Texans navigate the aftermath of this severe weather event.”
Additional counties may be added to the declaration as damage assessments are completed. Overnight, at the Governor’s direction, TDEM deployed the following state emergency response resources to support tornado response operations in Matador: Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Task Force 2): Search and Rescue Teams; Texas Division of Emergency Management: Emergency Management and Operations Technology personnel to support local response operations and coordinate state resource requests from local officials; Texas Department of State Health Services (Texas Emergency Medical Task Force): Ambulance bus with Medical Incident Support Teams and ambulances; Texas Department of Public Safety: Texas Highway Patrol Troopers; Texas Parks and Wildlife Department: Texas Game Wardens; Texas A&M Forest Service: Texas Intrastate Fire Mutual Aid System firefighters and engines and an Incident Management Team; Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service (Texas A&M Public Works Response Team): Personnel and equipment to support local public works needs; Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service: Personnel supporting local officials with needs assessments; and Texas Department of Transportation: Personnel to support road closures and debris clearing from roadways; Fuel Support.
Additionally, local fire departments in the region have deployed personnel and rescue assets through mutual aid.
Texans impacted by the storms and tornadoes have been encouraged to complete TDEM’s Individual State of Texas Assessment Tool self-reporting damage survey to help state and local officials identify damages and determine the state’s eligibility for federal disaster assistance.
Levelland can expect a new outdoor warning system project to begin installation in the coming weeks. Funded through ARPA funds, the City of Levelland City Council approved the project in April.
Kirkland explained the new siren system will use the same locations for the installation. That ensures a certain level of comfort for the citizens seeing not only the removal of the old system, but the installation of the new system.
Additionally storm season has made it’s way to the region and the Levelland-Hockley County Emergency Management is urging residents and business owners to register for weather related and emergency notifications to stay informed and alerted in case of emergencies.
Residents are encouraged to go to RUAWARE.US to register for Hockley County Alerts. Business Owners in Hockley County can go to https://r.iinfo. com/hockleycobizcontact for business alerts.
Also, individuals are encouraged to check their wireless device has the “emergency alerts by location” turned on. That will allow notifications to come through similar to the amber alerts but are initiated locally for emergency situations such as tornado warning or dynamic police incidents.
Individuals should not assume that getting amber alerts to their phone makes their settings correct for the notification; people will have to allow location alerts.
What location alert means is it will send the message based off geographical boundaries; the alert can be isolated to a specific area for only those within the preset boundary to receive the notification. This is a voluntary activation as amber alert system is not voluntary.
All alerts through this system come from local officials; never spam, solicitation calls, text messages or emails.
All of the text messages will come from the same number so it can be saved in contacts to be easily recognized.
The phone calls will come through with the office of emergency management number 806-568-5487, so it can be saved and easily recognizable as well.