At least four people were killed and several injured when a tornado hit the town of Matador, Texas, late Wednesday.
According to the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, a line of severe storms moving through the Rolling Plains of West Texas on Wednesday produced multiple tornadoes, including one that struck the town head-on.
The Town of Matador has experienced an unprecedented tornado bringing damaging winds to the town. There are four confirmed fatalities & ten total injuries. Seven of which were transported by EMS and three by personal vehicle. pic.twitter.com/ERZ0BYNL0A
— Lubbock Fire Rescue (@LubbockFireTX) June 22, 2023
“The Town of Matador has experienced an unprecedented tornado bringing damaging winds to the town,” the Lubbock Fire Department tweeted. “There are four confirmed fatalities and ten total injuries. Seven of which were transported by EMS and three by personal vehicle.”
The tornado is the second in a week to hit a Texas town. Last Thursday, an EF-3 tornado left three dead and more than 100 injured in Perryton in the northern Texas Panhandle. An EF-3 tornado has wind speeds between 136-165 mph. The size of the tornado that hit Matador has not yet been determined by the National Weather Service.
According to the National Weather Service in Lubbock, Wednesday’s storms produced softball-size hail and wind gusts upwards of 100 mph.
Pat Smith, the mayor of Matador, said that in addition to those killed, others may be injured and that there was “a whole lot of damage,” The New York Times reported.
According to The Associated Press, William Iwasko, a senior forecaster with the National Weather Service in Lubbock, said that shortly after 9:30 p.m., there had been three confirmed tornadoes in the line of storms that moved over the West Texas plains, but it appeared the one in Matador was the only that caused significant damage.
The town of about 570 people is located about 70 miles northeast of Lubbock in Motley County, Texas.
