COOKEVILLE, Tenn. — Heartbreak and hope.
It’s a combination I’ve witnessed repeatedly when covering catastrophes, from the Oklahoma City bombing to Hurricane Katrina to, most recently, the March 3 Tennessee tornadoes that killed 25 people and injured hundreds.
In a ravaged neighborhood of this community 80 miles east of Nashville, I met a survivor slammed into his basement by the EF-4 twister that destroyed his home.
But rather than lament what he had lost, the man, Gary Flatt, thanked God for fellow Christians who had come to his aid.
“Someone looked at the house and said, ‘It’s unbelievable what a tornado can do,’” Flatt told me, standing amid the scattered debris. “And I told them, ‘No, it’s unbelievable what a bunch of loving Christians can do.’”
Yes, it’s true: People of faith do more than pray after a disaster such as this.
Here’s how religion writer Holly Meyer of The Tennessean described the religious community’s response to the tornadoes:
They transformed their houses of worship into de facto relief centers, organized droves of volunteers for cleanup, raised money and met the basic needs of storm survivors.
These belief-driven helpers have been at it for days.
In 2018, I enjoyed writing a feature (“18 wheels and a heart to serve”) about a faith-based disaster relief truck driver’s all-night drive from Nashville, Tenn., to Panama City, Fla., after Hurricane Michael.
The theme: Heartbreak and hope.
