Perryton rebuilds with resilience: Two years post-tornado, progress shines through

PERRYTON, Texas (KVII) — Nearly two years to the day when an EF3 Tornado struck Perryton, ABC 7 News talked to city leaders and business owners to see how rebuilding and recovery efforts are faring.

“People in Perryton are tough,” said Kerry Symons, Mayor of Perryton.

“Unfortunately, a lot of people lost everything that they had I actually lost everything,” said Elbre “Frosty” Hickerson, business owner.

There were three fatalities and more than 100 people injured as a result of an EF3 tornado on June 15, 2023. The city of Perryton is looking backward its forward thinking as each day is a new step in the right direction.

“Two years is a long time but it’s eating the proverbial elephant one bite at a time,” said David Landis, city manager. “A lot of progress has been made we’ve demolished a lot of buildings a lot of buildings have been rebuilt, and a lot of new homes have been built.”

“Every building is occupied now that has left, they’ve been redone and are full,” said Symons. “We have a waiting list of people that want to come in on Main Street and lease a building and bring a business here.”

Since June 15, 2023, the population of Perryton started to decrease but city leaders said that over the last couple of months, they’ve seen the population not only stabilize but some former residents have begun to resettle here in Perryton.

“We believe we're kind of a stable level at this point in time and there’s a lot of encouragement and excitement of rebuilding back on Main Street,” said Landis.

“We’re building back the local community,” said Hickerson. “It’s looking a lot better and there’s indication down the pike that we may get some new businesses in town.”

Each day marks going forward for the city of Perryton, it’s about climbing the mountain as it’s a steady trail of progress being upward and onward as they continue to heal from a catastrophic event that occurred back in June of 2023.