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.