PERRYTON, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) — It has been nearly five weeks since an EF-3 tornado struck Perryton, and the community is hard at work rebuilding.
The June 15th tornado claimed the lives of three people and also destroyed 418 homes and 92 businesses, according to Perryton City Manager David Landis.
Several of the town’s municipal services were also impacted by tornado damage but he said they are making progress.
“We’re [on] the first mile, probably of a long marathon we have ahead,” Landis said. “We’ve made a lot of headway and city infrastructure-wise, we’ve found a home to temporarily house the police department, that’s in the old Ochiltree County Jail.”
Landis said the Police, Fire/EMS, and City Hall were all housed in one building which was damaged. However, their engineers are evaluating to see if they can rebuild it.
“Right now, preliminarily, it looks as though we can rebuild but that’s probably a year out before we can resume that to be our home.”
For now, he said Fire/EMS is in the Ochiltree County Exposition Center and will soon move to a temporary building on the east side of town.
“Then City Hall, we’ve purchased this building and are housing, our administration and utility billing out of out of this area,” Landis said, referencing the building where he was being interviewed. “The Public Works offices are in a double-wide mobile home out by the landfill.”
One of the 92 businesses lost was the Perryton Home Design Center. The owner, Gary Caler, told MyHighPlains.com the day after the tornado that he had let his employees go early on June 15th, so no one was at the store when it hit. Luckily, they were all able to get to safety.
Manager Derek Drum said a group came by last week and tore down what was left of the building.
“Things are looking up. It’s been kind of slow for a while and things are kind of picking up now, being more steady where we’re currently set up in a temporary location just west of our recent address, while we rebuild,” said Drum, noting they will talk to the builders in the first week of August.
“One of my personal fears was that, you know, people would just kind of be beside themselves…But it’s nice to see that most people are standing firm and standing strong and moving forward,” Drum continued. “The support has been wonderful, phenomenal, from the community to other communities, and we’re just still here trying to rebuild the best we can.”
Landis said many businesses in downtown Perryton are still evaluating the damage and what to do next, but the City is there to help.
“We’re going to partner with a forensic engineering firm to come in and take a structural look at their facilities and offer that service to our businesses,” said Landis. “We obviously want to keep our downtown alive as much as possible and we have had a few businesses that have been able to reopen. Others are still evaluating what their options might be.”
He said there is still plenty of work to do, but they have already hauled about 5,700 loads of tornado debris to the landfill.
“Everybody in Perryton has helped out and is working together. It’s truly been amazing to see how the Perryton people work together. We got a long way to go but through the Perryton pride and the Perryton community, we will rebuild.”
Landis said there are no organized cleanup activities right now but the city has hired a volunteer coordinator who can direct people on how to help. The City of Perryton said if anyone would like to donate volunteer work, or for those who need volunteer work performed can call (806) 730-7418.