Experiencing An F4 Tornado Is No Fun At All !

We live in northern Alabama, which is right in the heart of tornado country, and almost every time we have thunderstorms, there will also be tornado watches either here, or in nearby areas.
In 2011, we had a whole day of strong tornadoes going through our area. The first one took the roof off of the house, and after that the house was flooded with the torrential rains. We sheltered in the basement , which had almost a foot of water in it by that night.
No one could drive anywhere because trees and power lines were down all over the roads, and even emergency vehicles couldn't get through to rescue people for over 24 hours. Many houses were completely demolished by the storm, and there was no way for anyone to call for help because all phone lines and cell towers were out.
For almost 2 weeks, the whole area had no power, although the cell towers were repaired enough to work intermittently. We thankfully did have running water, and we had one of those little propane heaters which worked for heating water to make coffee.
I had solar lights out in the yard, and we brought those in at night to use for visibility in the house. they didn't provide much light; but it was almost like having a candle, and we could at least find our way around the house.
I washed clothes outside in a big plastic tub and hung them on the fence to dry. You could not go anywhere because of the trees and power lines on the roads, and there was nothing open even if we could have gone somewhere. We lived on canned food that could be eaten cold right out of the can, and instant coffee that we made with the little gas burner.
Living through this dangerous situation really made us stop and think about how important it is to be prepared for emergencies such as this when they happen.