Big weather fuels big faith in Oklahoma

As you wander bleary eyed through the wasteland that was once a perfectly ordinary American suburb with its strip malls, KFC, Imax cinema and Starbucks you are struck by two things: the degree of devastation caused by wind speeds of 200mph and the cheerfulness of survivors who have lost everything apart from their lives.

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“We are so blessed”, Rebecca told me as she was clutching her two-year-old son Anders. He was shoeless and dressed in a girl’s outfit.

It happened to be in the back of her car when she decided to quit the bathtub she had chosen for shelter, get in her car and make a run for it. When she returned to her house after the storm only a concrete slab was left.

A stranger’s car she had never seen before was on top of what used to be her bed and the bath tub was crushed and filled with debris. “We would have died, for sure”, she said with a smile on her face, ” had we stayed.”

Joy, who is in her 70s, lost everything too. But the losses of the storm weren’t nearly as bad as losing her husband to cancer six weeks ago. She too was smiling. “Tornados loooove Oklahoma, honey,” she said.

“This is our normal. Whether we live or die in one of them storms is up to the good Lord.”

More from Channel 4 News: Oklahoma tornado

Oklahoma is the buckle of the Bible Belt. The interstates are lined with mega churches, supersized crucifixes and giant billboards advertising salvation of one kind or another.

Much of this is cultural but the more severe weather stories I cover in the US the more I realise how much big weather fuels big faith here. Hailstorms the size of baseballs, earthquakes, hurricanes and huge wildfires all conspire to humble a nation that is built on the credos of individual achievement.

There’s nothing like a tornado to remind you of your human limitations. As a friend of mine in the UK said: “God doesn’t smite Somerset in the same way.”

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