I grew up in Nebraska and went to college in Kansas. In 25 years, I experienced 3-5 tornado warnings and took shelter during each. (Of course, tornado warning had a different criteria then so you would experience them more often now.) In my entire life, I've actually SEEN just one tornado, and it did some major damage to a roof, but that was it. So we all know what to DO in case of a tornado, but the reality is you are pretty unlikely to be hit by one.
Our elementary had the same 'duck and cover' procedure which was pretty dumb in retrospect because the 7th and 8th graders did it right across from large glass windows into the library (that small school is shut down now anyway.) The high school did have a basement area.
Really, doesn't everywhere have some risk of something? Alligators, rattlesnakes, earthquakes, hurricanes...something.