I've survived one, seen one, and seen the aftermath of many. The one I survived was in 1956 when I was only days old. It hit my city and neighboring cities and caused extreme damage. Naturally, I don't remember it, but I was told about it by many eye-witnesses. The wife and I saw one long around 1979 or so, while coming back from vacation up north. It crossed over I-75 somewhere around Roscommon about a mile or 2 ahead of us. Personally, I wanted to stop and just watch it go, but I noticed most around me hit the gas and went like a bat out of hell toward it. Must've been locals fearing for their houses, etc. The "Derecho of 1980" is the most vivid in memory for me. The same storm had just decimated areas of Wisconsin the previous day. I sat in an unemployment office in Taylor, MI and watched what looked like the city of Taylor go down Eureka road in an eerie green hue. No traffic, just debris including whole trees, parts of rooftops, etc. When power finally came back on and I left with my check, I was presented with what looked like a warzone. A tornado had blown railcars off tracks in Allen Park. Lincoln Park and Wyandotte had huge trees uprooted and car and house damage galore. Power was quickly restored in Wyandotte, about 6 hours down, but Lincoln Park was out for over a week. Just a few weeks ago, the wife and I were driving during a tornado warning and had to pull into a parking lot to let it pass. The huge rotating wall cloud just west of us was so close to the ground, we couldn't tell through the horizontal rain and hail whether it was just a wall cloud or a mile away F5. Definitely the most intense storm I've been in since 1980. I have a basement now, unfortunately my new house has none. But the area where I am moving has had only one tornado in it's history.