Survivors Remember Devastation on Belvidere Tornado’s Anniversary

April 21, 1967 was like any other Friday at school with buildings full of kids excited for the weekend. But something horrific was brewing as the school day was ending.

Ten different tornadoes touched down around northern Illinois that day, the most devastating being the one that touched down in Belvidere. Mike Doyle, author of the book, The 1967 Belvidere Tornado, while speaking with wrex.com, said,

“if you wanted to draw a map and say, ‘okay this is the worst possible path you can take,’ this is the path this tornado took.”

In Belvidere on that day a devastating tornado struck as the kids were getting on their buses to head home. Sixteen buses were outside Belvidere High School as the tornado hit, turning many of them over and throwing them around. The tornado took 24 lives (17 children) that day, injured several hundred, destroyed over one-hundred homes and caused $22 million in damage.

Survivors of that tornado talked with Chicago TV meteorologist Tom Skilling recently about that horrible day.