About the same time here in Lafayette, IN, we got the sirens too, only
they only go off for actual tornados.  I was talking to my sister when
they went off, so I was having a similar conversation. My sister has
never heard alert sirens, so she was pretty freaked and screaming at me,
"What are you supposed to do?!?!"  I told her I was supposed to turn on
the tv to find out what was happening so she started screaming at me to
turn on the tv over and over until I got it on.  The cool thing here is
that we can tune to the local television station and they can track the
storms so I could actually see where the storm and tornado were
tracking.  I mean, on their doppler radar thing, you can actually see
what part of the storm cell is the tornado.  Made me feel better knowing
exactly where is was headed and that it wasn't at me because it was
close enough that I should have been in my bathtub.  But on this map
thingy, it gets down to roads - even in town.  I can see where I live as
well as where this thing was.  It was really cool.  I actually watched
the radar for more than an hour as the whole line of storms moved
through our area.  They would never do this for a city that was larger
then where I live - play a storm on television for more than an hour.
But it had me glued.

We don't know how much damage the tornado did yet because it happened at
dusk and covered such a large area, but it did hit some houses and trees
and knock out power.  I'm certain we will know much more tomorrow.  I am
just thankful it didn't hit the  Suburu-Isuzu car manufacturer because
so many people work there and it was literally right in the path almost.
 They could have rebuilt it, but that many people don't need to be out
of work for that long.  Other than that, I don't think there was
anything really big to be hit.

Bridget - glad the storms are over tonight

So glad to hear you are safe.
Purrs and best wishes for everyone affected,

The same storm system came through the Nashville area about midnight,
and the weather service gave a tornado warning because the radar
could detect rotation in the clouds.  I spent a couple of hours
sleeping on a camp cot in my hallway, since the projected track came
relatively near my house, then moved back to my bedroom.
Fortunately, no funnel cloud actually touched down.

By the way, does anyone know of a brand of weather-alert radio which
allows you to select not only the geographical area affected (the
so-called SAME system), but also the type of weather code which will
sound an audible alert?  With my last weather radio (lost in the
February 2003 house fire), I kept being awakened in the wee hours of
the morning by flash-flood warnings.  Given that my house is on a
hilltop, 60 feet above the nearest creek, I don't have much need for
3:00 AM flash-flood warnings.  Tornado warnings, on the other hand, I
do want to hear.

Oh, a postscript to my previous message.  We got warning alerts on
the local radio stations last night here in Nashville, but I didn't
hear the tornado sirens go off.  Either I don't live close enough to
any of them, or else they reserve the sirens for an actual twister
reaching the ground.