In Their Own Words: Victims Remember Aug. 28, 1990

These are excerpts of people's first-person accounts of surviving the Aug. 28, 1990, tornado that decimated Plainfield and parts of Wheatland Township, Crest Hill and Joliet. The full accounts can be found in "Black Sky: Plainfield Tornado, August 28, 1990," compiled by Plainfield librarian Tina Beaird and published in 2005, the 15^th anniversary of the tornado:

Joyce Belobraydich: "I lifted Alysia and Becky through the hole I had made (in the debris that had come down on top of them). I remember thinking, 'We'll go get in the car and go to Grandma's.' It didn't occur to me that a couple of moments before, I had been looking through the area that used to be our garage. When I crawled through the hole, worked my way through the rubble to the living room, and saw the car sitting on the deck with the windows knocked out, I knew driving to Grandma's was out of the question."

Richard and Cynthia Brower: "All that was predicted by the Weather Service was severe thunderstorms. Around 3:30, the storm hit. The baby-sitter's home, immediately after the tornado, looked as if it had been bulldozed off the foundation. Our three daughters were injured, Sarah critically. … At 12:12 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 30, Sarah was declared brain dead and my husband and I had to make the hardest decision of our lives, to disconnect our daughter from life support. …The day Sarah was buried would have been her first dance class. She had been so excited about starting because (her old sister) Stephanie had been dancing for two years. Sarah was buried in her leotard and tights."

Julia and Marianne Holmer: "The next 10 seconds were a blur, eyes and mouths closed tight (as our car was) tossed into the air. Safely secured in our seatbelts, we felt them pull taut as we rolled upside down and elevated toward the ceiling of the car. My sister quickly opened her eyes in the blender and saw a 2-by-4 fly through the car. The next thing I remember (is) sitting up (and) opening my eyes to find a world around me that I did not know. … The car had flown two blocks with my mom, sister, brother and I in it, and landed facing the other direction on the other side of the street."

Robert Hill: "As I approached the high school, I was stunned. It was turned upside down and was a pile of rubble. I looked for injured people but saw very little human activity. It was like walking through an episode of 'One Step Beyond.' I remember seeing a garden tool completely embedded through a tree. All of the links of a chain-link fence were pushed to one end of the fence."

Robert J. Persicketti, a Will County sheriff's evidence technician: "About three-quarters of the way through the autopsies, everything stopped. I called the psychologists over to the table. One of the deceased had a distinct smile on her face. … I asked the forensic pathologist the reason the muscles would set in this manner. He said she was seeing a better place she was going to. She was a Catholic nun."

Michael Ramirez: "My dad told us to wait (in the basement) because he had something to do. I thought he was out of his mind. What on earth did he have to do at a time like this? It turned out that as we were getting inside the house, he spotted two children literally being blown around. He ran back into the storm to try to help them. He grabbed the boy first, who looked to be about 4 years old at the time. While carrying him, he grabbed his older sister and dragged them both into the basement. This was perhaps the most courageous thing I have ever witnessed, and am incredibly proud when I think of my father at that moment."

Todd Boreham: "I fell on top of the pile (of customers and employees who gathered in a back room of a True Value hardware store) and was able to see a little through the darkness. I saw the big overhead door about 15 feet from us bending and being pounded on by something outside. It was as if a monster was trying to get through the door. Then I saw sky above me."

Anne Anderson: "I held on to the doorjamb and saw everything flying around. I was knocked out and only awakened when my friend was calling my name over and over. She was yelling that the roof was going to cave in. I opened my eyes and told her to look up; the roof was gone!"

Lois Emerson: "We looked out across the parking lot and we couldn't believe our eyes. Some of the cars from the school's parking lot were lying in a nearby field and mine was completely gone. (We later found it at the other end of the building, smashed.) The subdivision across the street looked like someone had dropped a bomb; trees were down, telephone poles were leaning over, electrical wires were dangling from trees, and houses were half-standing or completely destroyed."