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I think the idea is to disprove (or at least test) the misconception that living in the Midwest is dangerous because of tornadic activity.
Which is true, I've had a lot of people who live elsewhere sound terrified "how do you live with the tornadoes every year? I wouldn't be able to handle it". A large majority of people in the midwest have never seen a tornado, although they go through the warnings and see damage from time to time. The chances of actually seeing one let alone being personally impacted are very small. Of course the fact is that if you ARE impacted it can be very severe and scary.
The one thing that I do "appreciate" though if that's possible is that normally a tornado will trash one very isolated area, but the majority of the city/region is completely fine and can pour in and help right away. Hurricanes, earthquakes, etc impact huge areas and you can find yourself very isolated and helpless during the initial time after. At least with torandoes, even like the one in Joplin, the rest of the town and the outside areas are intact and fully functional.
I've lived in Wisconsin for 44 years and have never seen a tornado or been near one that landed. Where I grew up, there are no instances of tornadoes ever having been recorded. I laugh every time I see people in the hurricane/earthquake/wildfire belts freaking out over tornadoes - they are very rare. I do work with someone who had some tornado damage to his house about 5-10 years ago, but that's the only person I personally know who has had to sustain an actual tornado.
Been in the midwest for 35 years, I've never been impacted. I maybe know one or two people that ever would have seen one in person. They're MUCH MUCH more rare for anyone to see or have their house impacted, even in tornado alley, than people tend to think.
I think in tornado alley the statistic is that a tornado will impact one specific point of land once every 10,000-12,000 years.
I know what you're saying and I mostly agree. But as a Southerner, I can say that there are indeed some parts of my state (Alabama) where the odds of being affected by a tornado skyrocket. That's because tornados tend to follow distinct corridors over a number of decades.
An excellent example of this is immediately northwest of downtown Birmingham, which has seen four different F4s and F5s churn through that area over the past 50 years. We're talking the same basic neighborhoods. The same is true of some other Alabama cities in northern and northwest Alabama. Heck, Cordova was hit by two different tornados on the same day on April 27, 2011.
Meanwhile if you do into the southeastern part of the state, tornados are comparatively less common -- particularly the strong ones. Those are mostly spin-up tornados from hurricanes.
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