Pat wrote:
My greatest fear is tornados that strike in the night when I'm asleep, but I
am too tired to stay awake any longer tonight and don't want to sleep in the
dank basement which I have so far not had time to clean. Would appreciate
some purrs to keep me & the owners safe tonight.

Pat, youve just still got mobile home mentality about storms. If you
have a basement, you're really quite safe. Sometime you might get a
NOAA weather radio; the ones that wake you up when there are warnings
in your area.
I lived through and survived the F5 that hit Moore, OK in 1999. After
that, I wasn't afraid of storms anymore. I realize now, how you have to
be *in the path*; and even then, they are so hit-and-miss. Our house
was untouched, but the houses behind us were leveled. 3500 homes were
destroyed, yet the injury/mortality rate was amazingly low, and the
majority of those were folks caught out in their cars.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I used to think that if a
tornado came within a mile of me, I was going to die. That's just not
true. And warning systems are so good now, we have plenty of warning
time. I still respect the weather here, but I'm not afraid of it.

Sherry