Two Events To Commemorate Tornado Anniversary

The 20th anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1990 tornado will be commemorated with two events this week.

Fox Chicago News meteorologist Amy Freeze will be at Plainfield Village Hall, 24401 W. Lockport St., at 10 a.m. Friday and at the Plainfield Public Library, 15025 S. Illinois St., at 1 p.m. Friday to preview a television program she's put together looking back at the tornado and its aftermath. Part of the show features interviews she did with Plainfield residents about their memories of the event.

Freeze also will give a brief presentation about the deadly twister and will take questions from the audience.

The community commemoration of the tornado will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday on the bank of the DuPage River (enter off of Lockport Street onto Countryman Drive, west of the river). Several trees will be planted as a living legacy to the 29 people who were killed by the storm, which spawned the only August F5 tornado in recorded weather history.

Organizer Paul Fay, a village trustee, said the focus of the event is to honor those who died, and therefore the ceremony will not include a lot of public speakers. Instead, the Plainfield North High School choir will sing and the trees — one for each person killed — will be planted, Fay said.

The location for the trees, which have been donated by Plainfield Consolidated Community High School District 202, is almost exactly at the center of the tornado's path, Fay said. Plainfield High School was destroyed by the 1990 tornado and three employees were killed.

Plainfield Public Library reference librarian Tina Beaird said it was her idea to ask Freeze to do a presentation in conjunction with the tornado anniversary after Freeze contacted her about finding residents willing to tell their stories of that day. Beaird compiled and edited the book "Black Sky: Plainfield Tornado, August 28, 1990," which the library published for the tornado's 10 anniversary.

Beaird did not live in Plainfield at the time of the storm, but she's become well-versed with the story of what happened as the library's chief historian on the subject, she said.

"I thought (bringing Freeze in to speak) was a wonderful way to look back and also to get a sneak peek at (Freeze's) program before it airs on Fox news," Beaird said.