Tornadoes Kill 23, Flatten 100 Homes in Illinois

The most powerful series of tornadoes in this area in more than two decades tore a path of death and destruction across suburbs southwest of Chicago Tuesday afternoon, killing at least 23 people and flattening 100 homes, an apartment complex, a church and a high school in a matter of minutes.

Four separate tornadoes spawned by a hot, muggy storm cell touched down amid the subdivisions and cornfields in the vicinity of Joliet, about 30 miles outside Chicago.

Area hospitals reported more than 280 people injured, many of them critically. Officials said they expected the number of deaths and injuries to rise through the night.

Meanwhile, Gov. James R. Thompson activated two Illinois National Guard units to help police maintain order and restore public services. As of late Tuesday, two people had been arrested for looting in the area.

One of the twisters slammed into the Cedar Woods Apartment Complex in Crest Hill about 3:40 p.m., knocking some three-story brick buildings to the ground and stripping the top two floors off others.

Police officers said they pulled several bodies from the rubble and were frantically searching for more victims as daylight faded. Some victims were thrown from buildings by the force of the storm and landed more than 200 yards away in a cornfield.

“It was total devastation; it looked like a bomb had hit,” said one fireman who helped pull bodies from the field. He said most of the dead were clad only in shorts.

St. Mary Immaculate Church in Plainfield was almost completely destroyed.

The storm mangled power and telephone lines and cut vital services to tens of thousands of residents in the area. It caused numerous traffic accidents on Interstate 55 as high winds tossed dozens of cars and trucks off the road. At least six people were injured in their vehicles.

Downed power lines sparked several small fires, officials said. Residents in some affected areas were warned not to drink tap water.

At least two deaths were reported at Plainfield High School, which was hit point-blank by one of the tornadoes only a day before the beginning of the regular school year. At the time, several teachers and administrators were inside the building preparing for the start of classes, and members of the football and women’s volleyball teams were practicing.

The students raced inside the structure just moments before the twister smacked into it, blowing the roof off and toppling many walls. Miraculously, none of the youngsters were among those reported killed.

“We had some very short warnings,” said Steve Schernerhorn, a school administrator. “We immediately took cover . . . . There is no school left . . . . All the houses in front of the school are pretty much gone.”

Nearby, 16-year-old Guy Allton watched from his home as the school crumbled. “We went outside and there were picnic tables blowing past our faces and stuff,” Allton told Associated Press. “Everything was messed up. Everything on James Street is totaled. Lots and lots of people hurt.”

Candi Vance, another Plainfield student, was not at school when the storm hit but barely escaped with her life anyway. The 16-year-old Vance was visiting her grandmother in the Lilly Cash subdivision in Plainfield when a tornado swooped out of the sky.

The two women had just begun to scramble down the stairs to the basement when the roof and much of the rest of the house collapsed. “It came down; the steps fell on top of us,” Vance recalled. “All I could see was the sky. There’s nothing left . . . . No one can believe we made it out alive.”

Vance was treated at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Joliet for a twisted ankle and bruised bones in her knee. Her grandmother suffered cuts on one leg from the knee to the ankle and was bleeding badly when she was brought into the hospital.

As night fell, huge traffic jams filled the roads throughout the southwestern suburbs as commuters returning from work tried to navigate through darkened streets obstructed by floodwaters and debris. Police roadblocks and the lack of stoplights added to the congestion.

Several hundred people with injuries ranging from minor cuts to serious head wounds were shuttled by ambulances to hospitals in Joliet. One of the facilities was so overwhelmed that it set up an emergency treatment center in its parking lot.

Authorities set up several shelters in area churches and schools for those who had lost their homes or were having trouble coping with the lack of electricity. Clair Swan, superintendent of schools in suburban Shorewood, said all three of his district’s schools would be used as shelters.

“At least 1,000 people, maybe more, will sleep here tonight,” he predicted.

Many area residents also opened their doors to those in need. A local radio station in Joliet was broadcasting the names and addresses of residents who had called in with offers to put up the homeless.

Area businesses also offered relief, including a bed-and-mattress shop that said it would let displaced people come in and sleep on the floor samples.