I know it’s a stupid question, but I’m still asking…
I can’t seem to grasp this. If there is a pretty good chance that sometime throughout each your your house will probably get destroyed by a tornado why not move somewhere where you don’t have to worry? I keep seeing this stuff in the news but don’t understand it. After the first 10,000 homes maybe someone would get the hint… Maybe the land is really cheap? as well as lumber? and the insurance is great?..
What keeps you wanting to stay in tornado alley!?.. Tornado’s are cool all, but I don’t think I’d ever want to live near any.
I’ve lived in the Midwest (3 different states) for over 30 years and my house has never been in danger from a tornado. I also have never known anyone who has even had a tornado get that near their property. Exactly where did you get the idea that an entire region is in constant threat from tornadoes?
Eh, if you live up north you get blizzards, if you live on the southeastern coast you get hurricanes, if you live out west you get earthquakes, wildfires, and mudslides. Where, precisely, do you propose people move that they don’t have to worry?
“Tornado Alley” just happens to contain a lot of the prime agricultural real estate in the country. You aren’t going to be able to live on pineapple alone, ya know. Besides, only a fool would live on an active volcano.
Honestly, every place to like in the US has some weather element that will make folks in other places question your sanity. For instance, the Pacific Northwest has mild weather, but all that depressing rain. Why would any sane person like in LA with earthquakes? Texas seems inhumanly hot to me, as does most of the west. I personally can’t handle the heat and humidity of the Gulf Coast, and a tornado isn’t made more charming with the addition of water.
I live in Chicago, and spend more than half of my time in Kansas City, right in Tornado Alley. And, I’ve never seen a tornado. I’ve never had a friend’s home destroyed by a tornado. I’ve never seen it as a danger.
“Probably” get destroyed by a tornado? :dubious: It really doesn’t happen as often as it sounds like you’re expecting. Most people in the midwest are never directly in the path of a tornado all their lives.
MO is considered partly within “Tornado Alley”. All of it is subject to tornadoes.
MO is just shy of 70,000 square miles. In 2006 we set a record of 124 tornados. Which collectively destroyed a little less than 1 square mile & damaged another 2. The remaining 69,997 square miles were untouched.
I grew up in SoCal. I my 20-ish years there I was in 5 damaging earthquakes (none of which damaged anything immediately where I was), saw numerous wildfires and mudslides destroy hundreds of houses, and saw 3 riots.
In 16 years living in the Midwest, and a further 10 traveling extensively throughout it, I’ve seen two tornadic clouds from 50 miles away. And a couple near-blizzards up in the northern plains.
Remember, the job of the news media is to show you THE most exciting 100 foot spot in the whole US. Every day. I see lava flows on the Discovery Channel (AKA the Disaster Channel) almost every week. From that eveidence I presume your house has been eaten by volcanoes at least once since you moved there. Right?
That’s not exactly a densely populated area. Tornadoes are as likely to rip through a crop or some brush as a house, probably moreso. And really, they’re still not that frequent there.
Well, here in Ohio we don’t get mudslides, or wildfires, or earthquakes…okay, yes, we do, but they aren’t as widespread or intense. Drought…isn’t that bad. Snow…a few bad days, nothing nearly too horrible. Hurricanes and tornadoes are rare. The weather for the most part is pleasant and livable, and we have great farmland, and lots of fresh water. The changing of seasons is wonderful, and gives a rhythm to the year that I don’t feel you get in the South or the fancy states like Hawaii! I lived in Georgia for 8 years, and I really missed the seasonal differences. Down there it was either darn hot, or kind of drab until things bloom again.
But presumably not in the village of Kalapana, which lava flows have pretty much wiped off the map (181 homes destroyed). And I trust you avoided Hurricane Iniki, which caused massive destruction on Kauai.
The worst part about the weather here (I am in MO) is that we have to deal with both snow/ice AND nasty hot humidity. And the weather is very random. Last week we still had snow on the ground and temps hit like almost 70 one day.
We’ve had storms and some flooding but none has ever impacted my house. Well one storm dropped a ton of hail on our house and cars once, but I guess insurance took care of everything, I recall getting a new roof at my parent’s house.
I don’t want to live here but mainly because I hate snow/ice and really hot weather. Metropolitan areas don’t often get hit by tornadoes. There is plenty of land that tornadoes can zoom through with out all the obstacles. Like Kansas. And the earthquake we had was really cool since it was only an aftershock and didn’t break anything and it made my bed vibrate me awake.
Heh, this discussion reminds me of when my teenage cousin decided he was a libertarian. It happened just after some hurricane had wrecked Florida and he was adamant that no taxes should go to help the survivors because they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. As if Florida had been completely empty at one point and experienced an immigration en masse. The funniest part is that we all live in Minnesota and he explained many times how blizzards are freak occurrences and not the same sort of thing at all.
I’m in Oklahoma for school, live in Texas. In 20 years, I’ve taken shelter from tornadic activity twice. Today was one - though the school wasn’t in any danger as far as I could tell, but it was close enough that the basement was recommended.
A few relatives have had property damages over the years, but never a whole lot.
I live in a suburb of Chicago that was hit by a tornado about ten years ago, and it lifted several houses right off their concrete foundations and blew them away. People in my neighborhood tell me about hiding in their utility closets with their children and pets. Is it scary? Hell yes, but they all say that folks go lifetimes without one, and I figure my generation’s been hit. You get insurance and hope for the best. What’s the point worrying?
I hate Chicago more for the winters than for anything else. If my husband hadn’t owned a home here, I’d be on the east coast.
I’ve lived in Oklahoma (where we have more tornados than anywhere else) my entire life…about 30 years. I’ve never seen a tornado.
Thing is, yes, tornados can cause horrible damage, but their area of impact is relatively small compared with, say, an earthquake or a hurricane or a blizzard. Also, with tornados (as with hurricanes) you get at least a little bit of warning…you know the bad weather’s coming, and the technology these days to pinpoint where a tornado is likely to occur has become pretty sophisticated. I mean, I’ve heard the weather guys say things like “we see an area of strong circulation in the area of this intersection…” Correct me if I’m wrong, but they still can’t predict earthquakes, right?
Besides, I love me my Oklahoma thunderstorms. Missed them when we moved to Florida for three years.
And the earthquake we had was really cool since it was only an aftershock and didn’t break anything and it made my bed vibrate me awake.