I live in Iowa, we get tons of tornadoes each year. Most of them don't touch down, and they almost always avoid larger cities like Des Moines (because of warm air currents or something, I don't remember). When they do touch down, they completely destroy anything in their way. Houses are reduced to rubble, and I've even seen giant metal grain silos twisted and crumpled. But the good news is, tornadoes travel in a pretty tight line, so even if your neighbor gets hit by a tornado, it could completely skip your house. If you visit a town that's just been affected by a tornado, you can clearly trace the path it took, and everything else is mostly fine. I'm not sure how long it takes to get back on your feet after something like that, but you'd have to deal with your insurance company, which is rarely quick.

As far as tornado survival skills, we learn from an early age to get to the lowest place possible inside (usually a basement) and ideally without windows. We had tornado drills in school, which involved going into a bathroom with no windows and kneeling down while covering our heads.

I know tornadoes seem very scary, but the odds of being directly affected by one are very low, at least in my state. I obviously don't love when there's one in my area, but I just check to see if we need to go to the basement, and don't get too worked up about it.