April 21, 1967

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Added: Mon Jul 14th 9:22pm
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I want to share with you a little something that may be of interest to anyone who is into weather, such as storm chasing and the like. On my most recent trip back home to Illinois (my home state), I stopped in Belvidere, which is about 65 miles northwest of Chicago, and I purchased a book entitled "The Belvidere Tornado, April 21, 1967, A 40th Anniversary Perspective". For starters, the title is self-explanatory. My family lived in the Belvidere/Rockford area from the late 1960's through the mid 1970's, and this book reflects back on a day that Mother Nature had a real bad attitude. On the day referenced, several Illinois cities were hit by tornadoes, most notably Belvidere and Oak Lawn (a suburb just to the southwest of Chicago). At about 3:50 P.M., the tornado came through on the southeast end of town. It first struck the Chrysler plant, where my dad worked (the reason why we lived away from the Chicago area during this time period) and witnessed the tornado heading straight for the plant. While only one person was injured there, along with some 300 cars tossed around like toys, Belvidere High School (which had just opened the previous fall) encountered the worst of what happened. As students were getting on buses to go home, the tornado came straight for the high school. By the time the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for the area some 15 minutes later, it was way too late. When all was said and done, 24 people were killed, of which 17 were students ranging from ages 6 through 17. The anniversary book consists of 144 pages of stories from those who witnessed the tornado and the destruction, as well as numerous incredible photos of the aftermath. An anniversary memorial service was held at the high school on April 21, 2007, and a tornado statue was unveiled on the school's front court yard to pay tribute to the 24 lives lost exactly 40 years to the day. The release of the book coincided with the anniversary. Now because I was only 3 at the time, I have no personal recollection of that day, but my dad sure does, and he said that he prays to never encounter anything like that again. The pictures in the book serve as a solemn reminder of how destructive tornadoes can be. Throughout my life I have heard the saying, "You like the weather here? Wait 5 minutes, it'll change!!!" Well, on April 21, 1967, that may have literally been the case for the people of Belvidere, only nobody was laughing. I had always had an interest in obtaining info on this particular disaster, since I was too young to remember what happened. To this day, the Belvidere tornado ranks as the 6th deadliest school weather disaster in U.S. history, and the worst weather disaster in Illinois history. I had always wondered how I would have reacted, had I been old enough to remember what happened on that fateful day. Would I be scared? Would I have thought it was cool? They didn't have storm chasers back then, and there was only one known photo taken of the tornado, which wasn't really that visible when it appeared in the newspaper. Since we lived away from the tornado's path, our family was safe, and fortunately, no damage was done to our place, unlike some other neighborhoods where houses were either severely damaged or just wiped out completely. Another footnote: It was learned that Belvidere, at the time, was not equipped with sirens to alert residents of such weather dangers, but shortly thereafter, the town, upon rebuilding, installed such sirens in case something like that were to happen again. (The Oak Lawn tornado, which hit around 5:30 P.M. that day, resulted in 33 deaths.) Given the length of time, Belvidere no longer has any visual indications of the damage done by the tornado, and thankfully there hasn't been one since. But for the people who lived through it, April 21, 1967 will be a day they will never forget. By the way, it snowed in Belvidere just a few days later.