I'd have taken my chances with the tornadoes before I would have gone down in either of my grandmother's basements in Oklahoma. Spooky! Same with the one tornado cellar we had at one house we lived in there. I'm certain there are such things as F-5 spiders. I've seen their webs.
LOL..you sound like my mom! She spent a lot of time out on a farm in Northern Oklahoma. The storms would come and everyone would go to the shelter but not her, she couldn't stand being cooped up underground.