Dallas tornado destroys churches, services go on
Congregations give thanks that nobody was seriously injured
DALLAS — Francisco Flores ran through the sanctuary of Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana seeking shelter as debris pounded the small church.
The Dallas Morning News reports the walls collapsed as soon as he made it to the reinforced breezeway. He crawled out of the protected space and climbed through the rubble that was his church, walking away with only a few minor cuts.
“If I would have died, that would have been God’s plan,” said Flores, 23, who had been at the church late Sunday night preparing for children’s classes he oversees. “My faith is even stronger now. This is the second opportunity at life that God has given me.”
Sunday’s tornado destroyed houses of faith across North Dallas. But even as congregations begin to clear crumbled bricks and broken glass, their members expressed thanks — even amid grief — that no one was seriously injured.
One church directed arriving parishioners to help at nearby homes instead so that families can quickly get their lives back to being as close to normal as possible. Another church will have to rebuild a second time, nearly 35 years after arson destroyed its last home.
Primera Iglesia Dallas was located in what was the Little Mexico neighborhood when fire destroyed it in 1984. Associate pastor Sam Lara was in high school then and remembers the devastation he and his dad, David, who was senior pastor, saw that night. They were determined to rebuild.
Maybe that’s why he doesn’t feel disheartened now when looking at the crumbled white pillars in front of the church’s home on Walnut Hill Lane. Much of the roof is missing from the main sanctuary, where services are held in Spanish. The small house for children’s ministries was in tatters and the building for English services was still flooded.
But as cleanup was underway, a parishioner pulled out an old Bible with burnt edges. It had survived the arson and, now, the storm.
“We learned a lesson last time that the church is more than a building. It’s the people that comprise it,” said Lara, trying to maintain his humor during a break. “I guess God wants us to build it even bigger and better.”
A handful of churches along Walnut Hill Lane were destroyed by the storm. Across the street from Lara’s church was Iglesia Cristiana Emanuel, which had only been open there for about three years after renting space since it was founded in 2010.
Volunteers salvaged some kitchen equipment and a few chairs, but nearly everything else in the church was a loss.
Around the corner, the pastor of Primera Iglesia Bautista Mexicana looked over Flores to see for himself that the young man was all right. Then, Ricardo Brambila directed volunteers as they began to make plans for a tent service this Sunday.