Yes, it is. We've had to take cover in the basement a couple of times, since we've been here. We don't get tornadoes often here in MA, but we had several of them during the year we lived in Indiana. Paul was our only child at that time, and he and I spent several bad weather sessions in the basement.
It is nice to know if the house fell down on us the fire department would have to dig a couple feet deeper to pull out our mangled corpses