Tornados scare the hell out me. That's the scariest part about hurricanes, the frickin' tornados they spawn.

When I think of moving out of hurricane country (I've done this for 40 years and its old), I always think, "I'm not going to the land of tornados". Those things are just so frickin' scary.

Yeah, I'm always amazed that the news never seems to cover all the tornadoes that are spawned by hurricanes. Those are ever scarier because you don't have basements or cellars to run to because of the flooding from the hurricanes!

Yeah, right. That's why Leavenworth has trailer courts at all cardinal points and hasn't had a tornado since they were put there as attractors... so there!

Storm that came thru last night was scarier than anything I've seen since moving to Hoosierland, even the storm that actually caused a tornado to land 4 miles east of us. The tornadoes actually hit in the Indiana 'boot' but that was one freaky storm. We got 60mph gusts up here, sixty miles north of Indianapolis and 100miles or so north of where the tornados actually landed.

It's these twisters that may make me decide to leave the wonderful midwest for earthquake contry. (Yes, this Californian prefers the MW to California)

*Shakes head bemusedly*

It must be the "devil we know" mentality at work here. Hurricanes and earthquakes kill and damage far more than tornadoes - not too many billion dollar tornadoes - but people fear the twisters more than the other two.

Wierdness.

Nah, we folks who live in the land of the 'canes have warning, days and even a week. Y'all have NONE. One minute you're sleeping blissfully and the next minute it's 2AM and there's a freight train coming towards your house. Holy crap that's scary.

And Beth... yeah, the bummer of not having a place to hide during the tornados in hurricanes. Dig 1 foot and you hit water here. Just gotta hope that the bathtub can save us. But... we don't get 'em as big as y'all do. We don't get the mammoth sized ones. Those make me quake just thinking about them.

A *lot* of money has been spent the last 20 years developing the radar tech that allows us to look for the hooks (where the tornadoes spawn, on the southwest side of the cell) and get the warning out quicker.

For us in Leavenworth, the turned off but plugged in television will suddenly blare forth with an emergency weather message, 24/7. If your television is not capable of that, a weather radio will provide that same warning. Then, for us, there is the siren across the street, too.

Most of the deaths from tornadoes come from people who either don't have adequate shelter (like the people who put mobile homes out in the country, but don't build a shelter) or who don't heed the warnings (like the idiots who gives us all the kewl video...) and, there are the folks who are just plain unlucky, and can't get to shelter.

So, while I take your point, I'd *still* rather live here, where I'm just not likely to get whacked, than to live where you guys do, where you *know* you're going to get whacked.

As I said before - the devil you know.

That's the thing about earthquakes though. There'll be hundreds of them a year, and they don't do any real damage. I think 1986 was the year we had 5 3.0+ earthquakes in a given year(and building code made those nothing). It's the catastrophic ones, like Loma-Priedo(the San Francisco quake that collapsed the Bay Bridge) or North Ridge, that scare the crap out of people who've never really lived there. I've been known to sleep thru a magnitude 5 quake.

Though, if you're buying homes in earthquake country there's one thing you should ask: is the house on a sand bed? John, having formal geological education, can proll' explain better than I can.

I have only felt one tremor in my life - and that was when I was a teenager in St. Louis - many years ago - it was really weird!

Tremors are no big deal, unless you're at the epicenter or your house is over sand(liquification of the sand. It's like standing on jello when a 5 year old shakes the plate to watch it jiggle).
On avg, quakes don't cause much damage. Tornadoes though, seem to always jack up something. Maybe I'll chip in and we can buy one of those decommission missile silos. There's got to be room for two families in there, with attendant pets of course. OUtside of quake country. Underground--no worrying about tornadoes. Outside of 'cane country.
Whadda ya say? I know John really wants one.

John sez: "Yer a grad student, right? So, like what are you going to buy, the mailbox?"

8^D