On the afternoon of April 21,1967,a violent tornado tracked through Belvidere,Illinois,United States. The tornado struck just after students at the city's high school had been dismissed,as they were loading onto school buses. Buses,some of which were loaded with staff and students,were flipped over and lofted,and the school itself sustained major damage. Throughout Belvidere,hundreds of homes suffered major damage,as did multiple businesses,in addition to the Chrysler plant and one of the city's two hospitals. 28 were killed in total,13 of whom died at the high school alone. Recovery was slowed down by snowfall days later. The tornado was one of three F4 tornadoes in Illinois during the 1967 Oak Lawn tornado outbreak. 50 years later,a memorial to the tornado victims was unveiled at the high school.
Across northern Illinois,the previous winter had been particularly intense. The 1967 Chicago blizzard that January brought record-breaking amounts of snow to the region,with as much as 68.4in (174cm) falling in Chicago. Snow cover remained until March 9,42 days after the blizzard.[2] As springtime approached,the region had been in the midst of an intense heatwave,with temperatures at Rockford reaching 80°F (27°C),and temperatures in Chicago exceeding 70°F (21°C) from April 13 to 17,5 consecutive days.[2]
Meteorological synopsis
Surface analysis of northern Illinois during the Oak Lawn tornado outbreak. Highlighted fields include temperature (red contours),dew points (green contours and shaded),and low centers (annotated)
On April 21,a strong jet stream was in place from the Southwestern United States to the Great Lakes region,and a strong 500mb shortwave trough moved northeast from the Southwest region. A surface low developed near the Great Plains and moved eastward along a stationary warm front,which was located between the low center and north of Chicago. Illinois experienced widespread temperatures in the low to mid 70s and dew points in the low 60s Fahrenheit. The jet maximum at 250mb reached 120 knots (140mph;220km/h) over the upper Great Lakes region,with much of northeastern Illinois being placed in the right rear sector,favorable for the development of intense thunderstorms. An existing line of storms that had caused wind damage and several tornadoes in Iowa and Missouri spawned strong rotating supercells as it entered northern Illinois.[2]
A child of a worker at the assembly plant recounts that in advance of the expected severe weather,the Belvidere Assembly Plant showed their workers a movie about tornado preparedness.[4] The facility noted that dark clouds had been appearing at 3:30p.m.,and at 3:45p.m.,particularly heavy rains prompted the plant to notify the sheriff's department.[5]
Tornado summary
The tornado touched down southeast of Cherry Valley near the border of Winnebago and Boone counties at 3:50pm.,and immediately began moving towards Belvidere.[6] As the tornado approached Belvidere,it passed by the Belvidere Assembly Plant,a manufacturer of Chrysler vehicles. Here,300 newly-manufactured vehicles,in addition to 100 cars owned by employees,were destroyed.[2] Dutch Whalen,a Belvidere police captain,was made aware of the report of the tornado at the assembly plant,and immediately began driving towards Belvidere High School with his vehicle-mounted siren activated. His vehicle ended up in a ditch,but he continued towards the school while shouting to alert those there about the danger.[7]Belvidere High School took a direct hit,with clocks stopping at 3:50p.m.[5] Students had been loading onto buses following class dismissal as the tornado struck. Twelve buses were flipped over,and multiple students were "flung like leaves" into an open field.[2] One survivor recalls being inside of a bus that had been lofted into a residence:
My older sister was in one of the last cars to get out of the parking lot at Belvidere High School. My younger brother and I were on a school bus. We were on 8th St just down from the high school. The tornado picked up the bus and the bus ended up in someone's living room.[4]
Whalen recalls seeing "houses being blown off their foundation" and buses being rolled multiple times over.[7] Inside the school, almost all large windows at the library were blown in.[8] At the parking lot behind the school, over 100 cars were moved from their original positions.[8] In all, 13 students and staff were killed and a further 300 were injured at the high school alone.[2]
Throughout Belvidere, the tornado caused damage to numerous businesses and institutions. At Highland Hospital, one of only two in Belvidere, the surgery wing took a direct hit. All but four windows at the hospital had been broken.[8] Businesses destroyed included DeWane's Livestock Pavillion, a Pacemaker store, and a Poulter Implement. [8] Hundreds of homes had suffered damage throughout Belvidere.[8] Multiple eyewitness accounts of the tornado state that green skies were present over Belvidere during and after the tornado passed.[4]
South of Harvard, the tornado struck a school bus on a highway in McHenry County. The driver and 20 students successfully sheltered in a nearby ditch. The bus was found split in half around 1mi (1.6km) down the road, according to one survivor, who claims the driver, Boyd Jones, got all of the students off of the bus before the tornado struck.[9][4]
Mechanism
It is disputed whether or not the Belvidere tornado was a single tornado. WREX reports that the tornado was on the ground for only three minutes.[6]Thomas P. Grazulis lists the tornado as a tornado family, on the ground for 28mi (45km) from southeast of Cherry Valley to north of Woodstock, with 130 homes destroyed in addition to 370 damaged, and all fatalities coming from Belvidere. Grazulis recorded $20 million in damage from Belvidere and $2 million from rural areas, for a total of $22 million (1993 USD, $47,887,000 adjusted).[3] The National Weather Service lists it as a single tornado, on the ground for 26.6mi (42.8km) across Boone and McHenry counties.[2] The path width is listed as 800yd (730m) in a report on the Oak Lawn outbreak,[2] however a 2022 compilation of tornadoes in the collar counties lists the width as 2mi (3.2km).[10] In the Storm Data publication of April 1967, the tornado is listed as having a path length of 28mi (45km), while having an average forward speed of 50mph (80km/h) over a lifespan of 35minutes, spending only 6% of its lifespan in Belvidere.[1]
Response
Mike Doyle described this image of survivors of the tornado outside of Belvidere High School as "one of the most well-known disaster photos in history"
Belvidere High School
At the high school, following the tornado's passage, numerous survivors recall seeing students covered in mud, some having pieces of debris such as road tar ingrained into their skin.[4] Survivors recall doors from around the building had been removed from their hinges and used as stretchers to transport the deceased to the gym,[4] where a "makeshift morgue" had been established for the dead. Injured students and staff were put on tables outside of the gym, before being taken to hospitals across Belvidere and neighboring Rockford.[12] Tornado expert Thomas P. Grazulis ranks the 13 fatalities at Belvidere High School as the sixth deadliest tornado event at a school and the worst after 1955.[9]
Elsewhere
Highland Hospital in Belvidere was used to treat victims of the storm initially, treating a total of 75, before being evacuated at around 7:00p.m. due to fears of the building's structural integrity. St. Joseph's Hospital in Belvidere reached full capacity, with further patients being transported to hospitals in Rockford.[8] Widespread gas leaks were found by rescue teams over Belvidere following the storm, with rescue workers instructed to avoid using cigarettes.[8] The Illinois National Guard was deployed to the city, and Governor of IllinoisOtto Kerner Jr. would tour damage across Belvidere on April 22.[8]
Two days following the tornado, on April 23, 3in (7.6cm) of snow fell over northern Illinois, which impeded recovery efforts.[6]
Aftermath
Belvidere was declared a federal disaster area, alongside other areas struck during the Oak Lawn outbreak, by president Lyndon B. Johnson.[13]
A marriage license from Belvidere dated to 1910 was discovered 70mi (110km) away in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a week after the tornado.[13]
Forecasting
In 2011, after hearing of the short warning time following the tornado in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Mike Doyle wrote that the Belvidere tornado had no warning at all. The first tornado warning for Boone County hadn't been issued until 4:03p.m., 13 minutes after the tornado struck Belvidere; by that point, it had exited Boone County entirely.[5] A 2014 draft for Boone County's potential hazard mitigation plan states that if the tornado struck in the modern day, it would be expected to produce an estimated $96 million (2014 USD, $127,510,000 adjusted) in damage, when using a model incorporating data from 2013.[14] After a March 2023 tornado outbreak produced an EF1 tornado in Belvidere, which prompted the collapse of the Apollo Theatre during a concert with 260 in attendance, Belvidere mayor Clinton Morris stated that the main takeaways from both that tornado and the 1967 tornado was the importance of warnings ahead of a storm:
Sometimes, when you don't have events for a long period of time, you get a little complacent, and nobody ever thinks that it may happen here... But it can, and it has... I think the best remembrance from either of these events is that we learn that the alarms, the warnings, they're for a reason.[15]
Legacy
On April 21, 2017, a memorial ceremony was held at Belvidere High School for the 50th anniversary of the tornado. At the ceremony, a memorial statue was unveiled, bearing the names of the victims of the tornado.[16] The monument features 25 rings; 24 for those killed by the tornado, and 1 for those injured or otherwise affected by it.[6] A 2024 BuzzFeed list ranked Belvidere as one of their "57 "Creepy" US Towns", with the 1967 tornado being cited as a primary cause.[17]
In popular culture
The Belvidere tornado was the subject of a 10-minute-long documentary film, entitled Tornado 67, by Lack of Sleep Films.[18]Tornado 67 won Best Documentary Short at the Chicago Shorts film festival.[19]
The book The 1967 Belvidere tornado, written by Mike Doyle, focuses on the storm.[20]
Fatalities
The tornado resulted in 24 fatalities across Belvidere in the short time it was over the city. One suffered a heart attack while observing the storm.[7] Of the deceased, 13 died at the high school.[2] After the tornado, 4 were killed by fallen power lines.[8]
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