Category: San Antonio News

Even as firefighters were trying to put out stubborn hot spots in what was left of a still smoldering Jacala Mexican restaurant, Cynthia Lambert, one of its co-owners, had reason to hope.

“Out of all this nightmare that we have and our hearts are broken,” Lambert said she’d been contacted by the owners of La Fogata restaurants, offering jobs for her 40 employees.

“With the shifts that they want or whatever they want,” Lambert said. “That’s the only blessing and it’s a Godsend.”

She said the welfare of their employees was a huge concern, especially those like Richard Galvan.

“This my home, my second home,” Galvan said. “I’ve been here 68 years working at Jacala.”

He was a teenager when he started as a busboy in the 1950′s. Now Galvan is in his 80′s.

Like always, Galvan had arrived for work at 7 a.m. Thursday, only to see the restaurant surrounded by firefighters.

He asked one of them, “What’s going on?”

Galvan was told there was a small fire inside, but the flames were growing higher and higher.

On the near Northwest Side in the 600 block of West Ave., since 1959, the building had several additions through the years.

A spokesman with the San Antonio Fire Department said the different attic spaces and roofs on top of each other made it difficult to fight the fire.

Cindy Martinez, a loyal Jacala customer, also came to see for herself the restaurant where she and her family from Dallas had dinner the day before the fire.

“There are no words. We’ve been coming here for years,” Martinez said.

Lambert said she’s seen so many messages from customers like Martinez.

“Facebook is going crazy,” she said. “Thank you, thank you, public. I do thank you.”

However, Lambert said it’s still too soon to say what will happen now to her family’s restaurant.

More on KSAT:

Long-time restaurant destroyed by fire held years of memories for owners, community

A search is ongoing for a 69-year-old man who recently disappeared on the city’s West Side, according to the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office.

Richard Scott Rider was last seen around 5:09 p.m. Wednesday in the 3000 block of Metone Way.

Deputies said Rider has a medical condition that requires medication and his family says he walks bow-legged.

He’s also described as having brown hair, brown eyes and was last seen wearing blue jean shorts, blue/grey shoes with white socks, a Dallas Cowboys baseball cap and a Dallas Cowboys grey short sleeve shirt.

Anyone with more information on Rider’s whereabouts is urged to contact the BCSO at 210-335-6000.

Boost in travel business could drive more hospitality industry deals

Newer venues and bigger upgrades creating greater competition for SA and its 30-year-old stadium

Bexar County deputies are searching for a man accused of intentionally crashing his vehicle into a family member’s home after a heated argument.

The incident happened on Sunday, March 13, in a neighborhood in far West Bexar County.

A 911 caller told authorities that he got into an argument with Andrew Herrera Jr., 26, because he was selling tools that didn’t belong to him.

The caller claimed Herrera became irate, got into his vehicle and drove it toward him, attempting to strike him, according to the BCSO.

Deputies said Herrera’s relative was able to jump out of the way in time and was uninjured. However, Herrera’s vehicle struck the family member’s vehicle and his home. Authorities estimate the crash caused about $4,000 in damages to the home.

Herrera had already left the scene when deputies arrived.

Following a short search, deputies were able to track down Herrera in his vehicle and pursued him. But, authorities lost sight of him and he was able to get away.

Herrera has been on the run since and deputies are asking anyone with more information to contact the BCSO at 210-335-6000.

When arrested, Herrera is facing a charge of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.

More on KSAT:

Cartel leader indicted in San Antonio; arrest caused retaliatory shooting, burnings on borderMan shot while pumping gas at North Side gas station, SAPD says

There are 500 people who currently work at the warehouse, but with its recent growth comes more job opportunities.

The new location would be the first to open in San Antonio since the four existing locations temporarily closed.

After completing construction in 2021, The NPR Group is formally introducing The Markson to the San Antonio community.

The long-rumored sale of the 6666 Ranch — previously owned by Fort Worth rancher, horse aficionado, art collector, arts patron, and philanthropist Anne Marion — is now confirmed. Don Bell, owner-broker of Weatherford-based Brazos River Land Co., an affiliate of United Country Real Estate, verified March 15 that the massive Texas Panhandle ranch has a new, but unidentified, owner. The sale price wasn’t disclosed. Reports surfaced earlier this year that Taylor Sheridan, co-creator of the…

We’d like to think that this windy, dry start to March is not a harbinger of how the rest of spring will look. Farmers need rain, our lakes are drying up, grassfires have been a problem, and the Edwards Aquifer has already dipped into Stage 1 restrictions before pumping season is even underway.

But unfortunately, the outlook doesn’t look great. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put out its annual spring outlook on Thursday. The biggest takeaway from that report:

Prolonged, persistent drought forecast in the West and the state of Texas for second year in a row, and elevated chances of a much warmer and drier than average spring across much of the West (including Texas).

Keep in mind that these are long-term outlooks and they don’t speak to specific situations. In San Antonio, history has told us that we can go weeks with drought, only to be hit by a massive flash flood caused by just one event.

In general, though, drought will be the main storyline. We’ve seen this song and dance before and you can place much of the blame on La Niña, which of course is a long-term climate pattern that can drive weather patterns in the United States. It typically results in drier than normal conditions here in South Texas. Here’s the latest La Niña update:

La Niña has been with us since 2020 and while a weakening was expected, La Niña actually strengthened to start 2022 in what climatologists call a “double-dip.”La Niña is forecast to persist through summer 2022, hence the bleak outlook for rainIn an interesting twist, La Niña years tend to bring fewer rain events, but higher risks of severe weather, including hail and tornadoes, during the spring in the south-central United States.Should La Niña persist into the summer and even fall, then a higher-than-average Atlantic hurricane season would once again be possible.

In the short term, the drought has definitely gotten worse. Take a look at how drought conditions have increased locally over the past three months. Based on these outlooks, expect this to get worse before it gets better.

Find daily forecasts from KSAT meteorologists on the KSAT weather page and more in-depth reporting about the environment on our Forecasting Change page.