Tornado in Cincinnati?

Michael and I have lived in Cincinnati for 4 years now, and with each passing storm, I become more and more afraid that I will find myself in the middle of a tornado here in the Midwest. I am afraid of what could happen given the fact that our home is 98 yeas old and our basement, apparently our only safe place to hide, is full of spiders.

I never had this fear before living here because in Florida we only worried about hurricanes and in Salt Lake City it was a freakishly crazy day when a tornado actually touched down along Capital hill and traveled downtown for a few seconds in 1999. But apparently, here in the Midwest it is not uncommon for the sirens to go off in the middle of the night to warn residents about the possibility of a tornado.

Well, last night I was awoken at 2am by a howling sound and a continuously flashing light in my bedroom. We like to sleep with a box fan in the window, and I finally jumped out of bed when the heavy winds from outside blew it out of the window and onto the floor. I ran to the window and looked out and saw the wind blowing in every direction and more lightning than I had ever seen in my life! My first thought was there was a tornado. One had touched down about 200 miles west of us the day before and I remembered the guy on the news saying it sounded like a train going by, and my heart started racing when I heard what sounded like a train!! I ran downstairs to turn on the television and saw on the news that there was a severe thunderstorm with the possibility of a tornado. I looked out the window and was partially relieved when I saw a train going along the tracks down the street from us!! What are the odds that a loading train would be going by at 2am during a severe thunderstorm? I would just like to thank the conductor for giving me a heart attack!!!

Well, after trying to wake Michael in the case of a true tornado and giving up because he decided to just lie there than telling him he could go ahead and sleep through a true tornado if he wanted to, the sirens finally stopped.

I decided I was safe and this is when I grabbed the camera and decided to film some of the lightening. I have been through my fair share of thunderstorms in Florida, but I had never seen so much, and after my heart stopped pounding from my "near-death experience" I realized how amazing the lightning was, even if near the end of the clip, it looks like it strikes our house!!!

Sorry that it is so hard to see, but I was looking out of our side window at our neighbors house and I had the camera sideways. Also, that constant moaning is the thunder and halfway through the clip you can hear the hail starting to fall. I hope this is the closest I ever get to being in a tornado!