1987 Saragosa, Texas tornado
| F4 tornado | |
|---|---|
| Formed | May 22, 1987 8:16 pm |
| Max rating1 | F4 tornado |
| Damage | $2.5 million (1987 USD) |
| Areas affected | Saragosa, Texas |
| 1Most severe tornado damage; see Fujita scale | |
The 1987 Saragosa, Texas tornado was a deadly tornado that hit the community of Saragosa in Reeves County, Texas on May 22, 1987. The tornado destroyed much of the town, killing at least 30 and injuring over 100 people.
The storm that was responsible for the Saragosa tornado developed during the late afternoon north of Balmorhea and had very little motion for several hours, moving only slightly across southwestern Texas. By the early evening, it acquired supercellular characteristics, and cloud tops reached 60,000 feet high. A Tornado warning was issued for Reeves County before 8:00 PM after a wall cloud was spotted, and a brief tornado touched down near Balmorhea at 8:10 PM.
However, at 8:16 PM, another tornado touched down just east of the town about 2 miles (3.2 km) from Saragosa, north of Interstate 10. Initially, it destroyed farms and outbuildings before evolving into a large multiple vortex tornado before entering Saragosa while intensifying sharply into a violent F4 tornado. Twenty-two people were killed inside Catholic Hall of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church, where a graduation ceremony for pre-schoolers was taking place. Eight others were killed elsewhere across the town, including one inside a car.
The worst of the damage occurred inside most of the business and residential area. Trees were debarked and homes were reduced to their foundations. Eighty percent of the town was destroyed. In addition to Catholic Hall, 118 homes, the post office, a grocery store, two churches and a school were also heavily damaged or destroyed. Damage was estimated at about $1.4 million. The path length of the tornado was nearly 3 miles (4.8 km) long and about 800 meters wide.
The Saragosa tornado was actually a well-predicted event: a severe thunderstorm watch had been issued for Reeves County at 3:45pm CDT, followed by a tornado warning at 7:54pm CDT that evening – at least 21 minutes prior to the violent tornado hitting the community of Saragosa. Local storm spotter TV and radio stations based in Midland, Odessa and Pecos rebroadcast the warnings in Spanish and English, but many residents in the affected region (over 100 miles to the southwest) did not receive them. The town was not equipped with a siren, did not have its own police or firefighters, and as many as 50% of residents did not own their own TV or radio; those who did generally preferred Spanish-language stations based in Mexico (which did not provide weather alerts).
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