I've lived in a tornado-prone area for over sixty years, and have never seen or heard one. Straight line winds OTOH, we've had those plenty of times. In the late 90s the industrial chimney of the former Storey & Clark piano factory (the name was laid right in the brick, vertically) got cracked in two, leaving only the K and part of the R. The wind was from the west and the whole pile dropped into the parking lot, rather than taking a big chunk out of the middle of what's now condos.
I lived in Tornado Alley twice: once as a young bride, with never hide nor hair or hair of tornado, but lots of warnings, and then again farther south, where tornadoes were far more common.
One missed us by less than a mile, and caused LOTS of damage in two towns southwest of us, and one missed my son’s house by half a mile.
I’ve seen the devastation they wreak and the lives they traumatize. It’s the reason I moved back to the Great Southwest, where all I have to deal with are the few minor T-storms, and earthquakes.
‘Face
;o]
My family’s house was destroyed by a tornado when I was 10 y/o. We then moved to a few miles away from Murphysboro, IL - a town part of the worst, most powerful, and longest track tornado in US written history. We now live a little over an hour from Mayfield, KY. (2nd longest track, and would be #1 if it hadn’t “skipped” for a few miles near the TN border.)
And yet... I’d take either of the above two tornados over a repeat of the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquake series. In such an event, I doubt we’d get survival help for everyone for MONTHS, even if Trump does a bang up job fixing disaster response. With all transport in, except air, destroyed again and again, the logistics are impossible. And, God help us if the rivers and reservoirs are high.