Well, here in tornado alley, we just watch the sky! I grew up in Kansas, in a town where almost everyone had a basement. Then I went off to college, and even had a basement under the apartment!
THEN I moved to Tulsa. No basements except for one small, older area of town. Bedrock too high everywhere else, I think.
Moved into a duplex with no basement, and immediately asked the landlord where the fraidy hole was. She didn't know the term, so, like I'm talking to a 5 year old, I ask, "where do you go when the tornado comes?" Her response: "We get in the bathtub!"
For literally years, I had dreams about swirling through the air in a bathtub!
Now they have "safe rooms" you can buy/build, but they cost a fortune, and a fortune I don't have. So the dogs and I pile into my middle bathroom and cross our fingers!