Perryton dealing with the financial impact of the devasting EF-3 tornado

MyHighPlains.com
by: Jack Kessler
Posted: Jun 27, 2023 / 08:19 PM CDT
Updated: Jun 28, 2023 / 06:49 AM CDT

PERRYTON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – After the tornado in Perryton left a path of destruction, and the residents in the city still try to recover, the economic impact left behind by the twister will be long-lasting.

The Mayor of Perryton Kerry Symons said the city lost 92 businesses and 411 homes leaving a big impact on the city.

“Our sales tax revenue will be majorly impacted along with our workforce. A lot of those businesses will come back, I hope more than a lot, but payroll on a lot of them will not come back right away and these people have nowhere to live,” said Symons.

Crystal Richardson, executive director of the Perryton-Ochiltree Chamber of Commerce said on top of the businesses that were lost, another 100 were impacted.

“That’s not even including the businesses that were forced to shut down for a week or lost their entire freezer full of food. There was a restaurant and the power was out for four days… One of the restaurants just opened 12 days before the tornado hit, 12 days! And they lost their entire freezer… So you start looking at the little things that add to that bigger picture and it’s going to be hard to recover for some of these people,” said Richardson.

Richardson said the answers for the business owners that were impacted aren’t fast and simple, it’s a process.

“It’s a learning curve because we’ve never had a disaster of this nature before…We are in the beginning phases of trying to apply for grants and get financial assistance for these businesses that have to rebuild everything. Their stock, their inventory, their building, so there is a huge financial impact,” said Richardson.

Richardson is estimating it will take three to four million dollars to rebuild what was lost in the tornado

Richardson added the city of Perryton also lost its city hall and historic blocks of main street with buildings that had been standing for over 100 years. She added it will probably be a year before they can even rebuild their main street again.

Richardson said that some business owners have expressed interest in rebuilding, while others are unsure.

“Some definitely are and have said were coming back and will be bigger and better and stronger and then there are others that they are not sure. They are going to see what money they can bring in, what assistance they can get, grants, programs to help, but we are a year out from a lot of those questions,” said Richardson.

Richardson said there are volunteer organizations working to get people housed and into available rental properties and established so that Perryton doesn’t lose residents and its workforce.

Richardson added the city of Perryton is encouraging residents to go to the Ochiltree Appraisal District to file a temporary property tax exemption and that deadline for that will be on September 19th.