Tornadoes

So I've lived here nearly 2 years already, and have yet to encounter my first tornado. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's something I'm EAGER to have happen; in fact, I told Bucky that if there ever IS a tornado situation where we have to go hide, I will be freaking out.

What brings this to mind is that my brother had a tornado near his city tonight. Their area was not affected, though they DID get golfball-sized hail, which his car didn't like getting pelted with. A few people were actually killed by this tornado, and others were hurt.

My brother has a tornado shelter buried in the floor of his garage. Here, Bucky and I live in a 3 story apartment building which is on top of a garage. The management tells me that if there were a tornado warning for this area, we should go down to the garage to wait it out. My car's parked down there - wonder if it would be a good idea to get inside the car also? Would be a nice little shelter for us two and the cat away from all the neighbors and screaming, terrified kids.

The tornado sirens go off here every Wednesday around noon. To me, they are spooky and sad-sounding. They scream, WARNING, WARNING, DEATH IS COMING! The first time I ever heard them was when I went to visit brother in his state in '05. I thought they sounded creepy then.

What concerns me is that I'm afraid I won't hear it if I'm sleeping. I have to sleep with earplugs (Bucky snores), but even without them, it's not that audible.

Though tornadoes do not happen as often here as they do in the middle mid-west or Texas/Oklahoma (is that still the midwest?), here is scary proof that they DO occur:

http://climate.umn.edu/doc/historical/tornadic.htm

Yeah, not looking forward to it!