OBU, Shawnee move 'toward renewal' one year after devastating tornado

SHAWNEE — A college student remembered huddling in the basement of a historic house of worship on the night an EF-2 tornado barrelled its way through campus one year ago.

Senior Haley Myers, 22, said on April 19, 2023, she and her friends asked for God's protection as they hunkered down in Raley Chapel at Oklahoma Baptist University.

"We asked him to save us, and no one was harmed — and that is a miracle. So, praise the Lord for that," the nursing major told a crowd gathered on Friday at OBU. Her remarks came at a special Renewal Era chapel service held at the Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated school in Shawnee. The service and a Renewal Era celebration held afterward marked the one-year anniversary of the April 19, 2023, tornado with prayer, presentations, food, plus old and new traditions.

All 167 structures ― including 50 main buildings ― at the private Christian university were affected by the storm, OBU President Heath Thomas said in his presentation. OBU leaders said total investment in tornado recovery that they are aware of will be more than $50 million. They said it will cost the school at least $15 million just to repair the iconic Raley Chapel.

But Friday's chapel Renewal Era Service and a Renewal Era Celebration held afterward focused not on the damage wrought by the tornado, but on the Lord's faithfulness in the midst of the storm, and the weeks and months of repairs and schedule modications that followed.

"We are not going to stay in a moment of wreckage for this campus and certainly not for our community, and certainly not for our lives ― we're going toward renewal," he told students, faculty, local and state leaders, ministers, community partners and supporters who gathered in OBU's Recreation and Wellness Center.

He spoke about the spirit of resilience that permeated the campus and the surrounding city of Shawnee after the tornado wreaked havoc. He emphasized the many partnerships and colloborative efforts that developed afterward, and all the first responders, contractors, university staff and supporters who rallied around the school.

"We've got good friends, we've got good partners," Thomas said, looking out at the crowd. "Friends, thank you," he said. "I'm just telling you, what God has done through the power of partnership has been absolutely unbelievable."

Moving forward

The university incorporated an old tradition and may have started a new one during Friday's activities.

Myers, OBU student government association vice president, asked students attending Friday's service to recall an experience over the past year that the Lord has brought them through. She encouraged them to write a message or Scripture related to their experience on stones that were provided by the university. Thomas said the stones would be used for a public art installation at the school.

Later, people visited an area near Raley Chapel to write scriptures, inspirational sayings and their names on tiles that will be used for the chapel's new roof. The school had a similar tile-signing event before the chapel's previous reroofing project years ago.

"This is just giving us the chance to see God work in all of this," sophomore Payton Carter, 20, said. "So, what happened a year ago, it's like people expected us to be so broken but we turned right around and God allowed us to move forward renewal and to do great things."

Brandon Peterson, dean of students and vice president of student life, also signed a tile.

"When you think of all that's happened around campus, this is a great way to kind of capture, remember, memorialize what we've been through," he said. "When the old tiles came off, before they were installed, they were signed by students and faculty and staff and so this is just a way to kind of be a part of history."

Meanwhile, Thomas said he was able to find many positives in the aftermath of the tornado. He said he had received the university's new master plan for the future from architects just days prior to the storm. With this in hand, he was able to make more than 100 copies of the up-to-date campus plan to help first responders, contractors and others who found the information useful in the days after the tornado.

The university president said the school also was able to invite students to return for in-person classes by May 1, despite widespread damage across campus. And he said he'd been adamant that the seniors who had started college during the COVID-19 pandemic would have an in-person graduation ceremony. The ceremony could not be held in the damaged Raley Chapel per tradition, but a joyous commencement ceremony was held in person a month after the storm at First Southern Baptist Church of Del City.

Thomas said two of the biggest storm-related projects that remain include restoration of Raley Chapel and Shawnee Hall.

Neighbors helping neighbors

Shawnee Mayor Ed Bolt attended the Renewal Era service. In an interview before the event, he echoed sentiments similar to Thomas' regarding the status of tornado-related projects one year after the storm.

"We're moving forward," he said. "I know there's some things that folks would like to see happen faster but it's been a very complicated process and things are going really well."

The mayor's remarks also seemed to echo those made by Shawnee City Manger Andrea Weckmueller-Behringer in a fall 2023 report.

While April's tornado wasn't kind to the community's businesses, they rebounded well, Weckmueller-Behringer said in her state-of-the-city report presented to the community's elected commissioners in October 2023. She said the EF-2 tornado left a path near and through the community that was 15 ½ miles long and up to 2,300 yards wide in places, destroying homes, significantly damaging Shawnee High School and wreaking havoc on many of the city's institutions and business community.

Weckmueller-Behringer said approximately 30% of the community's businesses, particularly ones located along N Kickapoo Avenue, "took a direct hit" and were "impacted" by the storm but she reported that most of the affected businesses had reopened by fall 2023.

Meanwhile, Bolt said some businesses and residents were without power for a time and many had to meet with insurance company representatives. He estimated that less than 20% of the buinsess did not reopen in the storm's aftermath.

He said the OBU community, though their campus had been hit, sent out groups to help clean up other areas of Shawnee.

"They were out in the town helping, so that was extremely helpful," Bolt said. "I know everybody here in Shawnee really appreciates that."

Bolt said it was important to remember that no one was killed during the tornado that cut a swath through the state's 14th-largest city. And he said the city's residents were there for each other when such compassion and aid was needed most.

"We just have the best people out here," he said.

"There was so much that was done even on the first day. I guess that was just neighbors helping neighbors. It was amazing to watch."

Contributing: Staff writer Jack Money

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This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Shawnee, Oklahoma Baptist University reflect, celebrate one year after tornado