I live just 20 miles from Tacoma. There are some places you don't want to hang out alone in that city.

This is, actually, an oversimplification, imho. Having lived in the Far East on a coral island in the path of many typhoons, there were design/construction techniques that eliminated the problem of rectilinear buildings blowing away in that environment.

Now, tornadoes are a different issue entirely. Growing up in "Tornado Alley" and surviving four of them myself before high school, I know full well that almost nothing generally available can survive a significant, direct hit... certainly not a teepee.

What would be interesting to me is to see how the overseas structures might fare in Kansas. My suspicion, given construction methods used, is that smaller structures might be fine. However, even having said that, I sometimes worked in a particular Far East multi-story Hospital shaped as a giant "X" that had withstood every typhoon just fine, thank you. Of course, one of the construction techniques used with it was moveable panels on every floor, for every wing that could be opened to let wind safely blow through. Yes, it seems humans have learned something, at least occasionally, since olden times.