Living in "Tornado Alley"

I've lived in Oklahoma for about 8 years now. I came here after leaving prison. I moved in with my parents, who lived in Norman at the time. Its a "College Town" with around 100,000 people(A little higher when schools in).
My first experience with "Tornado Alley" was in 20007. Its was May 8th. I was in El Reno with a friend. It was the first time I ever saw a Tornado It was only a EF1 but it still scared the shit out of me! The Tornado was covered in rain, but the noise was intense. It really is hard to explain.
People here in Oklahoma, especially the "Lifers"(Lived here their whole life) are use to Tornados. Most of the time they dont even leave the couch. Not me. After living through Katrina, I dont play.
My 2nd Tornado I got to see up close and personal. April 13th was the day I had to go to Traffic Court/Police Building for a speeding ticket. When I showed up it was cloudy out but it didn't look that bad. While I was inside the building waiting to be called, I noticed the Bailiff go over to the Judge and whisper in her ear. She got wide eyed and then told us "We are under a Tornado warning, everyone please leave, and seek shelter". Well, I jumped up and bolted for the door. My 2 kids were at Daycare and I wanted to pick them up because I thought they would be safer with me. I ran to my car, and jumped in, started up, and started driving towards my kids daycare center. Before I even left the Police parking lot, the Tornado(EF1) was on top of me(Click link to see video from Police Security Cameras). Visabilty was terriable. I couldnt see shit but trash cans and trees flying by. But as soon as it started, it quit. That was the day I learned you really can "Scare the piss" out of someone. I ended up picking up my girls, and we had "Daddy Daughter day".
On May 20th we had our biggest tornado to date. I wasn't in this one(Thank God) but a lot of my friends were. Moores only 5 minutes away. My wife and I were both home, watching the News. We saw the Tornado forming, and at first it didn't seem like it would be a big deal. We even thought about getting in our car to try and catch up to it and tape it. But then it started getting bigger and bigger. We watched it on TV go from this little thing to a massive 2 mile wide MONSTER(Click to watch it from into an EF5!As soon as it was over we jumped into our car and started heading to Moore. We knew the highway was hit so we decided to take Sooner Road. Once we got past Indian Hills Road we started seeing debris all over the place. It looked like someone took a house, put it in a huge blender and then threw it everywhere. We ended up coming back home because traffic was crazy.
The next day a friend of mine asked if I would come help her with cleaning up debris. Her house was right behind Warren Theater. It was leveled. While we were cleaning we ended up finding her cat. She(Kitty) was under a table in where the kitchen use to be. She was scared but other than that she was fine.

Sifting Through The Rubble

One of the things that really makes me mad is how I keep hearing on the news, and talk shows how we should all be better prepared  We should all have storm shelters. Most of us cant afford it. We dont have an extra $5k laying around. But thats for another blog I guess. Leaving in "Tornado Alley" isn't that bad. As long as the Tornados leave you alone.