Detroit was the same.................until a small one came through. We were just sitting down to dinner (fried walleye & pierogi) and the sky got greenish hue. No way was I leaving my dinner to go down the basement.............besides we never get tornados.
Happens, a small tornado touched down, blocks from our house. Minor damage, mostly trees.
I'm not sure one is ever better than the other if it hits YOU. I went to St. Croix as part of a GE emergency response team after Hurricane Hugo struck. I've never seen that much devastation in person. This is normally a very green and lush island. It was brown. There was not a power pole standing and the drive from the airport to the only hotel open in town required us to slow down to go over the hundreds of powerlines lying in the road. The hotel (The Buccaneer) was partially damaged. It was open for the law enforcement, mostly US Marshalls, who were on the island. It was about the safest place in the world at the time. Every palm tree was now a pole. There was half a DC-3 on top of a hanger at the airport and the tail section was at the far end of the runway. I was there with a friend who had been Island Hopping in WWII and was in the landing on Iwo Jima. He said it looked like an island after a full naval bombardment. Said the only thing missing were the craters.
A tornado would have to drop directly on top of your house to get to it.