Downers Hit by Tornado

In all my years, I don't think I can ever remember DG being hit by a tornado. I remember my mom and dad speaking of a twister going right up Main Street when they were very young, but never in my lifetime have I ever heard of this ---- until now. I received the following from Norma Deardorff Plummer on June 28:

"To you former Downers Grove residents out there -- I don't know if you are aware that a tornado went through Downers Grove last Tuesday night. We didn't have any problems on our property but there were trees down all over town. DG South HS took a big hit. John and I weren't even aware there was a big storm coming until my daughter Beth called from Oak Park as their tornado sirens had gone off. Ours never did because the tornado hadn't been recognized. Downers and Mt. Prospect were the hardest hit. Check out information on line if you're interested in further details. The town will be weeks removing all the downed trees. No human casualties have been reported."

Norma followed up with another e-mail:

"Further to my earlier email, this website gives you some interesting information. We don't live in the path (being a north sider) but still, a little too close for comfort and two of our neighbors lost big trees. One fell on the power lines but, for some reason the lines didn't come down and we were only without electricity for a few seconds. Others on the south side (including classmate Alanna Aselin Lauchle) were without power for almost two days. Thankfully the temperature has remained in the 70s."

If you're interested in visiting the website Norma mentioned above, which shows the path of this EF-1 twister, click on the title of this post.