Will Co. emergency boss was rookie when tornado hit

Just a few days on the job with the Will County Emergency Management Agency, Harold Damron had no idea Aug. 28, 1990 was going to be the longest day of his career.

"Just to put it into perspective, I had interviewed for the job three weeks prior to the tornado," said Damron, who now leads the agency 20 years later. "When the tornado hit, it was the beginning of a very long two and a half days. We didn't sleep for 60 or so hours."

The National Weather Service categorized the twister that tore through Plainfield, Crest Hill and Joliet 20 years ago Saturday as an F5, the most powerful kind. It left 29 people dead in its wake. It also left memories that Damron can never forget.

"A picture doesn't do the damage justice," he said. "When you're seeing it, it's just a window. But being there was unforgettable. the destruction surrounded us."

Damron was on his way to a meeting when reports started coming in about a possible tornado touching down in Plainfield. He wound up getting to the meeting just so he could shuttle some county leaders to the emergency operations center.

"I was initially sent out to a subdivision called Wheatland Plains, northwest of downtown Plainfield," he remembered. "There were about 40 or so homes just completely destroyed."

During the next three days, Damron said he crisscrossed the tornado's path of fury, assisting where he could.

"The one thing that always stood out in my mind is when I was supposed to meet someone on a bridge on Route 30 just west of downtown," he recalled. "This bridge was normally tree-shrouded in the summer and it was like going through a tunnel, but there weren't any trees there anymore. There wasn't a tree anywhere. Everything was just cleared. It took me several minutes to figure out if I was in the right location."

Damron doesn't remember growing weary during the initial recovery effort; someone just eventually told him to go home and get some sleep.

"We didn't think about it I guess," he said. "There was always just one more thing that needed to be done."

In the aftermath, there were several improvements to emergency services practices. Mutual aid agreements were ratified, warning systems were improved and emergency resource management protocols were changed.

"Plainfield had done some good resource planning," Damron said. "The problem was, much of their resources had been destroyed by the tornado. The tornado made us think bigger in terms of disaster resources."

Damron said the one bright spot following the tornado's carnage was seeing volunteers come out and help.

"We had a huge outpouring of people who wanted to help," he said. "There was an organized time for people who wanted to come out and help, and we didn't know what kind of response we'd see. There were more than 5,000 people who showed up to help total strangers. It was just an enormous response from everywhere."