The plans, which are required by the federal government to access certain grants after a natural disaster, are laborious to assemble — especially for rural counties.

Georgia DeVries, an East Texas 17-year-old, shared her experience living in a car for one month last year on TikTok.

Voters in Texas’ 50 largest counties will now elect new three members of their respective property appraisal district boards.

Rudolph the Red-Nose Pumping Unit has long been a holiday tradition in Lufkin. The machinery, now used worldwide to extract oil from the ground, was invented by a local businessman.

A town of 34,000 people, Lufkin sits deep in the Piney Woods, a region dotted with rural towns. Local civic leaders hope a long list of efforts can revitialize the city’s downtown and reboot its economy.

The latest county to make a disaster declaration is an eight-hour drive away from the Texas-Mexico border, but local officials there say they’re under “invasion.”

Zavalla lost all water for several days. The Texas Department of Emergency Management has sent pallets of bottled water and a team to help.

Public health officials have played a crucial role in vaccination efforts and tracking the spread of the virus. But different needs from their communities and insufficient aid have complicated the work.

HOUSTON An investigation is underway after a Tomball man was killed in a plane crash, according to officials. The crash happened Saturday near a private landing strip in Zavalla, which in east Texas. The Department of Public Safety said the 40-year-old man has been identified as James Duke Vanlue. Officials said Vanlue was flying from Tomball to Zavalla and crashed after clipping some trees near the runway. The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating.