Hurricanes have been hitting Florida, AL, MS, LA & TX coasts for thousands and thousands of years. And earthquakes have been present in CA for thousands and thousands of years. And tornadoes have been ravaging the mid-west for thousands and thousands of years. And Mississippi river has been flooding all states it passes through for thousands and thousands of years.
May be that is why North America was the last continent to be civilized. Asia and Europe had flourishing civilizations 5-10 thousand years back. Columbus did not arrive until the 15th century. Native American population was minuscule in comparison to Asia, where they came from. They were too busy escaping natural disasters. North America suffers the most wrath of nature. It has nothing to do with any religious reasons. It is the natural phenomena due to topography of this continent, with 2 huge oceans on either side.
But they are not frequent enough or severe enough to explain the complete lack of technological development on the whole continent.