Going into a deep meditative state, via prayer, chanting or meditation, will provide this state of inner calm -- regardless of to whom one is praying to, or what one is thinking or saying. One absolutely does need to be a Christian to experience this effect.

More importantly, though, OP, people died and many Christians lost their homes, and everything that they had. I just spoke with one of my friends in the Midwest (who happens to be a Christian, by the way), and he said that the suffering of his extended family & his neighbors is profound, and that they're horrified by the vast scale of the devastation in their county. But, you're implying that "Jesus" basically picked and chose which Christians to save, and left the rest to suffer?

My friend and his family WERE praying (to the same God figure that you worship), and they're goodhearted, kind people, yet their neighborhood was not spared. You honestly believe that your God intentionally "saved" one street, but callously & monstrously allowed all of the other people who believed in him to suffer?

Is that really what you believe? And, how could you even worship an entity that would do such a thing -- who would haphazardly pick and chose who deserved to suffer?

Threads like this are so incredibly sick and such a slap in the face to those who have already been victimized enough by these storms. How on earth do you not see that? Where is your compassion?

It is threads like these that turn people away from Christianity, because, if you're so utterly blind and cold-hearted about the suffering of your fellow humans, how can one take anything that you say about a "loving God" seriously? If you honestly believe that you've been gifted with compassion and discernment...perhaps you should actually try to use it, instead of constantly using other people's pain to push your own personal religious agenda.