Tornado warning always will get my attention.

Having spent my childhood growing up in the state of South Dakota, I have seen my share of bad weather.

Many times, storms came up and we took cover in our storm cellar. The cellar was in our backyard, about 25 feet from our front door. It closed with a large wooden door and had about 10 cement steps going down into a cold, dark, damp room. It also served as my mom’s root cellar, so there were shelves of canned jars of fruits and vegetables. A large wooden storage box where the potatoes and sweet potatoes were held was on the floor.

To me it always smelled like the Earth down there.

Also, on one of the shelves you would find two flashlights, a blessed candle, a box of stick matches and a rosary. As a Catholic family, asking God to watch over us and our farm was first and foremost.

So, the scenario would go like this, my dad, our weatherman, would come in early from the field or milking chores saying: “I don’t like the looks of the clouds. A storm is coming up. We better get in the cellar.”

There was no “give me a minute I want to finish reading this chapter” or “no, wait, I want to finish listening to this song.” You dropped everything and ran to the cellar. Our farm dog Lady would be waiting for us by the steps and was the first one down.

We could always hear the storms approaching, with strong winds and sometimes hail hitting the door. Luck or maybe the prayers we offered up played a role, and our farm was never damaged from storms. Yes, we had tree limbs down and hailed-out crops, but the buildings still stood tall.

Last August we were staying in our summer home in South Dakota when weather warnings started crawling along the bottom of the TV screen. It read that people in our area should be aware of a possible severe weather outbreak later in the day.

Summer pop-up storms are a normal thing so I didn’t think too much about it. About an hour later my phone started to get alerts telling me that we were under a tornado watch. Well, that certainly got my interest. I went outside to look at the sky, and it was very, very dark and stormy-looking to our north.

In about half an hour my phone alert went from a tornado watch to a tornado warning. Now my anxiety level is starting to rise. A few minutes later my friend called and asked if we were watching the TV, as a tornado was spotted 7 miles north and heading right toward our town.

Now my anxiety level is in high gear. Just a few minutes later our phones started going off, saying “take cover, tornado warning.” Now the anxiety is way over the top and very close to panic.

We headed into our basement along with our neighbors whose home had no shelter.

At that time my thoughts went back to the days of that safe little storm cellar so many years ago. It certainly felt more secure than sitting in a wide-open basement. But some things never change; we still lit a blessed candle and prayed for safety.

After half an hour our phones posted an all-clear signal. The tornado had lifted a few miles from town, and we just had a few tree limbs down.

From a youngster back in the day to this now-seasoned soul, I know when tornadoes pose a threat it’s wise to take it seriously because no one wants to wake up in the land of Oz.

Mary Tobia is an occasional writer for the Times News. Reach her at tneditor@tnonline.com