Some people will do whatever it takes to avoid living in tornado alley.
If you’ve ever lived with the threat of a tornado, you’ll know how incredibly terrifying it can be to hear those sirens and have little more than an hour to get inside and in your basement before a life threatening cyclone engulfs your house.
Within a matter of minutes, you go from normal life to an absolute disaster. You can’t get your most valuable possession and put them in the basement on time; your only chance is to grab yourself, your kids, and your pets and get into the basement as soon as you hear the siren go off or see one in the distance. Since a tornado can touch down in a period of a few seconds to a few minutes, there is no time to waste. However, your house could be missed while other portions of your neighborhood are destroyed. Sometimes you can go years with nearby tornados and never sustain any damage to your house. Hurricanes are different because the worst ones are like tornados the size of a quarter of the country itself. They’re massive storm systems that usually form days or weeks before making landfall. Part of my preparations involves making sure my storm generator is working so that I won’t lose air conditioning even if my power goes out. While some people prioritize their fridges and freezers when they use storm generators, I bought mine specifically for powering my air conditioner. There are times when the electricity can be off for a week or two, so it’s important to be prepared ahead of time.