The violent Aug. 28, 1990, tornado destroyed parts of Plainfield, Oswego, Crest Hill and Joliet, killing 29 people and injuring 353.

It is the only F5 tornado to happen in the U.S. in August.

We asked readers to share their memories and stories from that day and the aftermath.

Heroic children

Al Litwiller said he once lived across the street and east of St. Mary Immaculate Catholic Church on Frederick Street in Plainfield.

On the day of the tornado, Litwiller’s wife was taking a graduate course at Northern Illinois University, and he was working in Cicero. Their two children were at home.

Litwiller said his 15-year-old daughter was in bed with a migraine; his 11-year-old son was playing basketball in the driveway and saw the approaching tornado.

“He ran in the house to wake up my daughter and run to hide in the basement,” Litwiller said.

Every window in that house imploded during the tornado – and they later found more than 100 pieces of glass on their daughter’s bed, he said.

But both children survived.

“Our house had major damage,” Litwiller said, “but was intact.”

Once the storm passed, Litwiller’s daughter searched for survivors.

The first place she looked was a one-story ranch house just northwest of their house, where a stay-at-home mother with two small children lived, he said. The structure itself was gone.

“The living room couch had overturned on top of the mom and children,” Litwiller said. “My daughter lifted the couch up. The mom said, ‘Heather, is that you or are you an angel?’ My daughter helped them to our home. Our son gave them clean clothes to wear.”

Next, Litwiller’s daughter went to the house immediately south of their house. That structure also was gone, he said.

“The elderly neighbor lady was hiding in her basement. Her son was trying to hover over her to protect her,” Litwiller said. “He needed 72 stitches to close his wounds. My daughter did her best to clean out the glass and debris in his wounds.”

Litwiller said his daughter visited many nearby residences to help people. She brought them to her home, and her brother found clean clothes for them.

“To this day, I am so proud of my daughter and son,” Litwiller said. “They continue to be my heroes.”

‘Horror zone’

Maia Ciszak Hill, who was attending cosmetology classes at Professional Choice Hair Design on Jefferson Street in Joliet, was in the salon area with customer when the lights and power suddenly went out, she said.

“We could all hear the strong winds and hail the size of golf balls hitting the roof,” Hill said. “Everyone could tell something just wasn’t right nor safe about the weather. The sky grew very dark and gloomy. No one was to leave until we all knew it was safe. Minutes turned into hours, which then felt like days.”

Hill said the students lined up by the front door to use the payphone to the background of weather sirens, fire trucks and ambulances.

“Traffic was a nightmare once our parents came to get us,” Hill said. “The golf ball hail was still coming down hard. My mom came and picked me up, driving an old classic hunter green Pontiac Bonneville with bench seats – and the hail balls were putting dents in the Bonneville.”

Hill said they only lived 15 to 20 minutes from Professional Choice, but the heavy traffic felt like a six-hour drive. And the area that once looked like Will County – Joliet, Crest Hill and Plainfield – looked like a “horror zone,” Hill said.

She couldn’t believe the tornado wiped out so much: the Catholic church and school Hill once attended and where her mother taught, local plaza stores, apartments, houses and even Hill’s school – Plainfield High School.

“All of it had to be rebuilt,” Hill said, “but the memories lived long on forever.”

‘Strange greenish tint’

Kristen Merriman, a fourth-grade special education teacher at Central Elementary School in Plainfield, said her mother had taken her and her twin 4-year-old sisters to Showbiz Pizza near K-Mart on Jefferson Street in Joliet “to have one more fun day” before Marriman began second grade.

Afterwards, Merrriman visited her friend on Westline Drive in Joliet, played T-ball with the neighbors and ate Oreo cookies with milk in the driveway, she said.

When it was time for Merriman to bike home, both mothers waited at each side of Willardshire and watched their children return to safety, she said.

“As we were riding, the sky was dark black in the distance, and I witnessed the most terrifying bolts of lightning that I have seen to this day,” Merriman said. “Her mom called mine and told her to just stay at my house until the storm passed.”

After Merriman’s mother had the children put their bikes in the garage, Merriman noticed the stillness in the air and the “strange greenish tint,” she said.

Then, the friends went inside and played with Merriman’s little sisters on a blue Little Tikes teeter-totter and ate Skittles from a dispenser.

“All of a sudden, it turned pitch black outside as if it were night,” Merriman said.

Merriman’s mother hustled all four children and the two dogs into the bathroom closet with her, which was near the center of the house, Merriman said.

“You could hear an extremely loud noise, and the window was covered with leaves instantly,” Merriman said. “We were all talking and singing, and just like that ... it was over.”

They left the bathroom, and Merriman looked out the living room window at the odd assortment of items: a dollar bill, Paperboy the game and the birth certificate of an old classmate who lived in the Lily Cache subdivision, she said.

The mother of Merriman’s friend ran to their house. All that was left of the friend’s home was a bathtub, Merriman said.

Then, Merriman’s father ran to the home, since he was not allowed onto the street with his work truck, she said.

“We were out of power for a long time,” Merriman said. “People took showers/baths in our swimming pool, and I attended second grade in a mobile home at Grand Prairie, since part of the school was also taken away.”

Merriman said she wasn’t scared at the time because she was too young to understand – but she had realized what happened over time.

“Not a day goes by that my sisters and I don’t check the weather and take precautions,” Merriman said. “My heart races when the tornado sirens go off each time.”

Merriman said she still has a tornado shirt that was sold in 1990 and a piece of the stained glass window from St. Mary’s church. When Merriman watches documentaries of the event, she “can’t believe that an F5 tornado came through our area at that time of the year.”

“It was devastating,” Merriman said, “and the only good thing that came out of it was the growth of a small town and other small towns nearby, and the way that our community came together.”