I don't think I can really imagine how it must have felt..

Listening to the radio as well-meaning but clueless announcers blathered on about whole towns being wiped out (close, perhaps, but not quite true) and hospitals collapsing (completely false) only made things worse.
Yes, why on earth do they DO that??

In the aftermath, again the range of effects were broad. For my part, I have little residual anxiety over the incident. But I still notice myself paying more attention to the wind, especially during thunderstorms. Others I know grow anxious whenever there is a thunderstorm warning. And at least one person I know has to take a sedative to make it through the storms.
I think that is perfectly natural. I remember after a fire I freaked, for a moment, at the smell of smoke for about a year before it passed.