Texas

Update: 1:21 p.m..: Sen. John Cornyn said at a press conference that 60 people are still unaccounted for in the town of West.

"There are a number of confirmed dead but a number who are unaccounted for," he said.

Some headlines circulating now are skipping context, KERA's BJ Austin tells us.  Cornyn's announcement came with the cautionary point that many could be staying with friends and family, and they aren't presumed dead. Authorities still haven't scoured all the hospital lists for names, according to Cornyn.

Former Kaufman County Justice of the Peace Eric Williams was charged Thursday with capital murder in the shooting deaths of the County’s DA, his wife, and the assistant DA.  Williams was under suspicion early on.

Update (Saturday): As of 3 p.m. today, some residents of West, the site of a major explosion at a fertilizer plant Wednesday, will be allowed back into their homes in part of the severely damaged neighborhood in the north section of town. 

Residents 18 and over living in the area from Walnut street southward will be allowed to enter until 7 p.m. From 7 p.m. to 7 a.m., the city will have a curfew, and residents will need to either stay in their homes or leave the neighborhood. North of that area, Mayor Pro Tem Steve Vanek said at a press conference this afternoon that the city will work "as quickly as possible"to allow people back to their homes. More information for residents is available at the City of West's website.

Update, 12:15 a.m.: "An unbelievable tragedy" -- that's how D.L. Wilson of the Department of Public Safety described Wednesday night's fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas. Speaking to the media just after midnight, he added that he'd toured the blast zone, and it looked "just like Iraq, just like the Murrah building in Oklahoma City," which was bombed 18 years ago this week.

Wilson said more than 100 were injured, and he confirmed that people have died, though he gave no number.