The top local stories this evening from KERA News:
One person has died following an explosion outside Coryell Memorial Healthcare System, about 40 miles west of Waco. Coryell County officials confirm that 12 were also injured by the blast.
The explosion reportedly happened around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, when a generator exploded at a construction site near the back of the hospital in Gatesville.
A spokesman for the Texas-New Mexico Power Company says the explosion also knocked out power for a large portion of the city.
Patients were being evacuated from the hospital and from two nearby nursing homes.
Other stories this evening:
- The chief executive of the nation's largest shelters for migrant children says it could take months to reunite thousands of children with their parents. Juan Sanchez of the Texas-based Southwest Key Programs tells The Associated Press that the U.S. government has no process in place to speed up the return of children to their families, who were separated as part of the Trump administration's recent so-called "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. Sanchez says his group is limited in what it can do because many parents' cases will likely have to make their way through the legal system first.
- A few hundred children are currently staying at a detention camp in Tornillo, outside El Paso. Angela Kocherga covers the border and parts of West Texas for the Albuquerque Journal. She was part of a small group of journalists allowed to tour the Tornillo facility. She told Texas Standard’s David Brown that the camp includes 20 or so tents for boys ages 13 and older.
- Life hasn't changed much since KERA's One Crisis Away project visited Jubilee Park three years ago. It's a neighborhood on the financial edge, in the shadow of Interstate 30 in Old East Dallas. Chris Crowley was born and raised there. He's one of the people Courtney Collins is re-visiting in our new series, “One Crisis Away: Still on the Edge.” He's got a better job now — but he's spending 24 hours a week commuting.
You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.
