Originally Posted by Needles

Angelmomma, has it down pat. I was born in IN and raised in OH but have lived in FL over 45 years. I will take a hurricane over a tornado, any day, even though hurricanes spawn many tornadoes. None of them are the magnitude of a midwest massive tornado. They wipe out whole towns there. Was still in OH when The Palm Sunday tornadoes hit in 1965, from Nebraska/Iowa through western PA, 78 storms rammed across the country. I believe total deaths were close to 300. My uncle farmed in southern MI. Two weeks later he was plowing, saw a pile of debris in the field so stopped to see what it was. Mostly paper and trash but a checkbook, a person's in Iowa. He called her and she was amazed but said he need not send it, her house was totally gone, she had to open a new bank account. All her information of life was gone too, along with her home.

When people ask me where I grew up, I always say, the basement. Yes, the SW corner of it, we kept blankets and pillows there along with flashlights, portable radio and water jugs. Storms come out of the SE and travel to the NW, thus should your home be hit, it hopefully will carry the debris away from your safety spot.

After we moved south, Xenia, OH was hit by a massive storm, was in the mid 70's or so. The funnel was 1 mile wide, sat down on the SW side of town and run NE, on the ground, for 5 miles. The massive damages were unbelievable. OK also has many storms like this, along with TX, KS and others in the plains. People I know who live in that area with no basements, either have storm cellars or storm vaults, under the house...................and they use them. As a child, we had homes with a basement, but many times in IN, we ran to our neighbors to share their root cellar if one was approaching during the day. Yes, they are a scary scenario.

But when you think about it, all parts of the country have weather phenomenon to worry about. Flash floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, excessive heat, excessive cold, etc. I think what I dislike most here is lightening. Don't ever go under a tree in FL when it's lightening, get off the beach and away from any large open areas and stay out of the water in small boats, canoes, kayaks, etc. We had one of those storms last evening. Wow!