Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III Issues Statement Following Oak Cliff Disaster

DALLAS, TX - No One Left Behind endorsed candidate Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes III, Democratic nominee for Texas' 30th Congressional District and senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, issued the following statement in response to the horrific explosion and fire in Oak Cliff.

"There are moments when words feel too small. This is one of them, but we must not be silent while our neighbors are hurting.

Yesterday afternoon, in our Oak Cliff, a gas explosion tore through The Clyde apartments on East 9th Street and left a building, and so many lives, in ruins. Three of our neighbors are gone, two women and a child. Others were carried to the hospital while families still comb the rubble for the people they love. They wait by the phone, praying for a name to be called.

We do not yet know all of their names. But God knows every one. Scripture tells us the Lord is close to the brokenhearted, and tonight, so must we be.

To the families standing in that ash: you will not stand alone. Already Oak Cliff has shown us who we are. Neighbors handing out food on 9th Street. Restaurants opening their doors. The Red Cross, and firefighters who wept as they dug, a whole community refusing to let one family grieve by itself. That is the Oak Cliff I know. That is the Texas I believe in.

So let us be that for one another now. Bring water, bring food, bring diapers and blankets to Mission Oak Cliff on Beckley. Check on the family next door. Hold the missing in the light until every last one is accounted for.

We will owe these families answers, and we will get them. But for now, we owe them our prayers and our presence. And we will hold their hands through this darkest hour.”

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About Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III

Rev. Dr. Frederick Douglass Haynes III is the Democratic nominee for Texas' 30th Congressional District and senior pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, where he has served since 1983 and grown the congregation to more than 13,000 members. He is a nationally recognized pastor, theologian, and advocate for racial and economic justice.