Personally, if I had a choice, I'd take a hurricane over a tornado any day, and I've literally seen the bottom side of both. They each rotate counter-clock-wise which is about their only similarity. In a tornado the wind is blowing every which way at once, and will turn everything it touches into toothpicks or pulp in under a minute. I've only seen the bottom of one once, due to a lightning strike which lit it up, and it only lasted a few seconds, but destroyed everything around. Hurricanes I've ridden offshore, being on the drill crew who was among the first to arrive, and the last to leave on crew change. The rest of the crew would already been evacuated and sitting in a nice hotel, while we waited on a storm plug or some such, as the hurricane slowly enveloped the location. I've seen 150 foot work boats disappear behind the swells as they tried to maneuver near enough to the rig for the crane operator to snatch it off, and seen them disappear again before he landed it on the deck, only this time they were simply getting the hell out of "Dodge".
Some things you might want to note if you're in it's path, and never been there before. They will usually be coming from the South or the East. You can well brace yourself against those winds, from the south and the east, which might last for hours, or maybe all day and night. Then there will be a lull, which can also last for hours, but it isn't over yet, for soon enough, you'll notice those same winds coming up behind you, this time from the north and the west.
You cannot secure yourselves from one direction only, but be prepared for the back side of it, which can be almost as strong as the first was.
You all have my best regards, be careful out there