They didn’t see it, but they felt it.
So said Maria Beltran, 58, who owns 1017 Cafe in San Isidro, as she reacted on Thursday to the fireball that shot across the South Texas sky Wednesday evening.
That’s the reaction she’s also heard from her customers who experienced the same phenomenon that she did.
At 5:23 p.m. that day, police in Alton and Mission became inundated with hundreds of phone calls from residents reporting a fireball in the sky followed by a loud bang that shook houses.
Like Beltran and her customers, most people in Hidalgo County felt what Hidalgo County Sheriff J.E. “Eddie” Guerra said during a press conference held at the Center for Education and Economic Development in Mission was likely a sonic boom.
The timing of the fire in the sky also coincided with the national security drama surrounding the Chinese spy balloon and three mystery objects that have been shot down recently by fighter jets.
But the question weighing on the minds of Rio Grande Valley residents since the fireball streaked across the sky was whether it landed in Hidalgo County.
“At no point was this fireball near Mission nor did it strike the ground,” said Robert Lunsford, the journal editor with the American Meteor Society, a nonprofit which encourages meteor research and publishes material on the subject.
Lunsford also said in an email that the computer generated trajectory he provided is “only a good guess” due to the nonprofit having received only five reports while adding that they’d “need many more reports from a wide area to provide an accurate trajectory.”
Officials echoed a similar statement by Lunsford, who said fireballs occur every night all over the world, which was that these sorts of phenomena happen every day.
“Although we worry about this and this is not a normal occurrence in the Rio Grande Valley, it is not abnormal for this to happen,” U.S. Rep. Monica De La Cruz said during the conference. “You see, we have meteorites that have hit all over, not only the United States, but the world.”
De La Cruz said that the meteor was detected by Air Traffic Control in Houston when it was 10 miles west of McAllen.
Beltran initially believed it was thunder after she heard what she described as a loud boom, so she stepped outside to look at the sky for any rain clouds but saw nothing of the sort.
“Several of my customers mentioned that they felt the vibration,” Beltran said. “They didn’t know what it was either until they heard the news.”
De La Cruz also said that she’s requested additional information from the House Committee of Space Science and Technology and that she would receive a debrief from NASA at a later time.
Mission Police Chief Cesar Torres, whose department initially responded to the calls, said his experience on the police force helped him keep his head when he received reports of the loud sound residents’ heard.
“Well this is no different than when we respond to hurricanes or critical incidents,” Torres said. “I’ve been doing this for about 32 years so I’ve responded to multiple critical incidents, so no different than that. However, I can tell you that our biggest concern is public safety.”
He added that one sometimes does get worried due to public safety concerns and as an officer he always wants to make sure no one gets hurt.
Though the meteor has caused a lot of commotion throughout the community, officials expressed their relief because they haven’t received reports of any injuries or property damage.
“We as law enforcement want to make sure our community is safe,” Guerra said. “Again, no property damage, no lives were impacted or lost and we’re grateful for that.”
Monitor staff writer Valerie Gonzalez contributed to this story.
Editor’s Note: The headline has been updated to reflect new information from NASA, which indicates meteorite fragments may have fallen in Starr County.
