Neighbors help each other after tornado hits Matador

Members of First Baptist Church in Matador were gathered for their regularly scheduled mid-week prayer meeting June 21 when the worship service suddenly was disrupted.

“Everybody’s phones starting going off” with weather alerts, Pastor Eddy Helms said. “So, we left early and went home.”

At 8 p.m., an EF-3 tornado hit the western part of Matador, claiming four lives and injuring 15 people. Wind gusts between 145 mph and 165 mph destroyed 29 buildings and damaged at least 34 other homes and businesses in the town of 600.

“Praise God it wasn’t further east, where it’s a more heavily populated area,” Helms said.

Neither the 90-year-old First Baptist Church building nor the parsonage sustained any damage. Within 45 minutes after the tornado hit, Helms posted on the church’s Facebook page: “I can open the church for shelter if needed.”

A member of First Baptist Church who owns an Airbnb property offered the use of that house at no cost to a Matador resident who was left homeless after the tornado.

Among the church’s members, three households—one couple and two single individuals—sustained serious damage, Helms said. A young woman with disabilities lost her home.

“She will need a lot of help,” Helms said. But he quickly added the church received a significant donation three days after the tornado specifically to assist her.

Volunteers from neighboring town help

Meanwhile, 30 miles away, Paducah barely felt the effects of the tornado that devastated their neighboring community to the west.

“All we got was a little bit of a breeze and about 12 raindrops,” said Kyle Roach, pastor of First Baptist Church in Paducah.

The day after the tornado hit, Roach and several members of his church went to Matador to offer assistance.

“Kyle was on my front porch at 7:30 on Thursday morning,” Helms said.

Roach and his church members set up a grill on the front lawn at First Baptist Church in Matador to offer free meals to anyone who needed food. The volunteers from Paducah first prepared breakfast burritos and later grilled hamburgers.

During the first 24 hours after the tornado, Roach served as the point of contact for Texas Baptist Men and community ministry, enabling Helms to ensure the well-being of his congregation.

“Eddy drove around town and went by to check on every member of his church,” said Les Griffin, director of missions for Caprock Plains Baptist Association.

‘Angry’ storm left trail of destruction

After Helms was able to care for his church members, he joined Roach and Griffin in driving around Matador to survey the damage.

“The storm didn’t cover of a lot of ground, but it was really angry,” Roach said.

They also visited with residents affected by the tornado.

“We just let people share their stories,” Roach said. “A lot of them were pretty well still in shock.”

He recalled meeting one Matador resident who ended up with a motorcycle pushed against the back of his garage after the tornado.

“And he didn’t own a motorcycle,” Roach said, noting he and others later located the motorcycle’s owner, who lived a half-mile away.

Another family discovered a car engine on their property.

“They didn’t know where the rest of the car was,” he said.

First responders on the scene

Several members of First Baptist Church in Paducah who are part of the volunteer fire department also served as first responders in Matador, including participating in the search for casualties.

“They’re doing all right, but I’m sure they’ll be affected by what they saw,” Roach said. “Since they’re members of our church, I’ll keep tabs on them. They’re doing OK. They are where they probably need to be right now in terms of processing it.”

As the three ministers drove through the community, Roach was on the phone, coordinating volunteers and relaying information to Texas Baptist Men.

Griffin noted he was “totally amazed” by how quickly TBM responded to the Matador disaster, providing a generator at First Baptist Church the day after the tornado so the church building could be made available as a cooling station.

Fortunately, electricity was restored to the town by Thursday evening, and the generator was needed only briefly. TBM also dispatched a shower and laundry unit to Matador, but it was not needed once utilities were restored.

TBM also provided a box unit crew who distributed storage boxes to help residents affected by the storm collect recovered belongings.

‘God is good all the time’

Griffin noted a group from First Baptist Church in Quitaque brought a skid-steer to Matador and volunteers to help clear debris.

“They were very kind and helpful to separate the rubble from important personal belongings,” Griffin said. “All of our groups were sensitive to personal objects of others and seeking permission to clear things away. The Christ-like spirit of FBC Quitaque was appreciated by the family.”

On Sunday, June 25, members of First Baptist Church gathered to pray, sing and testify that “God is good all the time,” Helms said.

Griffin, who participated in the worship service, noted two commonplace greetings took on new meaning as the congregation gathered.

“When people said, ‘Glad to see you,’ they really meant it. And they asked each other, ‘How are you doing?’ But then they waited for a response. They really wanted to know how other people were doing,” he said.

When Griffin briefly spoke during the service, he mentioned First Baptist Church in Muleshoe delivered two generators to Matador, including one that went to a member of First Baptist in Matador. He said a woman in the congregation immediately raised her hand and said, “That was me!”

Later in the worship service, that woman told the congregation: “It is a joy to be here, and I praise God for what he has done. I was in a closet talking to the Lord [when the tornado hit] but remained very calm. … I am thankful for my safety through the tornado, and I thank you for the electric generator.”

Helms delivered a brief sermon on “the hope of the Lord,” based on Ezekiel 37—the Old Testament prophet’s vision of a valley of dry bones restored to life by the breath of God.

‘Overflow’ of donations and volunteers

The next day, a report sent to TBM disaster relief volunteers stated: “TBM has completed all assigned work, and all volunteers and units have returned home. There was an overflow of skid-steers and volunteers from the surrounding communities, leaving the community able to take care of all needs.”

The “overflow” of donations and volunteer assistance was not limited to heavy equipment and those who operate it. Roach and his volunteers from Paducah were prepared to cook meals for an extended time, but they soon discovered other groups also offered free food at multiple locations.

“There were probably more places to go eat in Matador than there ever had been,” he said.

First Baptist Church in Matador served as a distribution center for several days after the tornado, providing donated clothing, water, toiletries and cleaning supplies to anyone who needed them.

“There was enough water donated to fill a swimming pool,” Griffin said.

About 200 cases of water filled the basement of Matador’s First Baptist Church building. Helms noted another community not far away needed water, and he hoped some of the bottled water at his church might benefit those people.

First Baptist planned to donate most of the surplus clothing to a crisis pregnancy center and a community ministry in Plainview, he added.

“We’ve just been blown away by the response of people from everywhere coming to help,” Helms said.

Griffin acknowledged he felt overwhelmed when he first learned about the tornado in Matador, and he said he hopes no other community in his area ever has a similar experience.

“But if it were to happen, I don’t think I will be as forlorn as I was last Wednesday night,” he said. “I’ve seen a reminder that God is good, and God’s people are good.”