1967 Oak Lawn Tornado Outbreak - Belvidere High School

Belvidere High School

At 3:50 P.M., a violent tornado, rated F4 on the Fujita scale, moved through Belvidere, Illinois, damaging the high school and overturning buses. Twenty-four people were killed and another 410 injured. 127 homes were destroyed and 379 damaged. The storm continued into McHenry County, spawning another tornado in Woodstock. The two tornadoes covered a 25-mile (40 km) swath. Thirteen of the 24 people killed in Belvidere were killed at the school, making this tornado the sixth deadliest ever to hit a school. Seven people were also killed at a shopping center. The Belvidere tornado was especially devastating because it hit the school just as students were getting on the buses to go home. Just before 4 pm, the F4 tornado reached the school. Twelve buses, already filled with elementary- and middle-school students, were tossed about. Several of the students were tossed into adjacent fields and killed. A bus driver was killed as well. Shortly after the passing of the tornado, faculty and some of the stronger students used the fireproof doors of the high school as stretchers to carry the injured into the cafeteria, the severely injured into the library, and the dead into the gymnasium. 300 new cars and 100 employee cars were destroyed at the Chrysler Plant in town. A school bus driving south of Harvard was thrown into power lines and torn in half. The driver and students survived by hiding in a ditch.