Church's Foundation Remains After May 3 Storm

A tornado left a path of devastation through the small town of Bridge Creek on May 3, 1999. The town held a special service to remember the storm that took their church but strengthened their spirits.

Sunday, May 3rd 2009, 9:19 pm

By: News 9


By Jennifer Pierce, NEWS 9

BRIDGE CREEK, Oklahoma - A tornado left a path of devastation through the small town of Bridge Creek on May 3, 1999. The town held a special service to remember the storm that took their church but strengthened their spirits.

The Ridgecrest Baptist Church couldn't stand the powerful F-5 storm, but everyone in the building made it out alive. Only a slab of concrete, the church's foundation remains, but the storm made the community's foundation stronger.

"The devastation was incredible. I had never seen anything like it before," said Pastor David Rivers.

A new church was rebuilt. Now it's not only a place for worship but a building for the Bridge Creek community.

"This is our community center now. this building gets thrown open a lot during the week and people come up here and people who aren't even members of our church come us our building and that's cool," Bisbee said.

On Sunday, the tight knit community gathered to remember May 3rd, 1999 in what the pastor called the Surthrivor Service.

"It's not just that people survived, they thrived even after all that," said Pastor David Rivers.

"There's going to be some teary moments. There always is with devastation but there's also some rejoicing times," said church member Donna Edge.

The Ridgecrest congregation will never forget, but will instead look at the positives that have come since the storm. The church plans to build on the concrete slab that remains from the original building.

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