Plainfield principal recalls finding his home destroyed

Robert Smith was never happier to see his neighbor than he was on the afternoon of Aug. 28, 1990.

Smith, now principal of Plainfield High School's Central Campus, and his wife were driving home during the storm's aftermath, desperately trying to reach their five children, who had been left home with a sitter.

"We drove right in after it hit. We were on Caton Farm Road when all this happened and of course the hail was the size of my fist coming down hitting our van," he said. "Once we got on Route 59 and could see the Peerless Estates subdivision, it looked like somebody just stepped on top of everything. There wasn't anything there; not even our house. When we got out of our vehicle and ran up to what was left of our house, I didn't expect to find anyone alive."

As pure luck would have it, Smith's mother-in-law stopped by the house 10 minutes before the tornado hit to check in on the sitter.

"She was able to get all five of our children into the lowest part of our tri-level house. If it wasn't for her, we would have never found them alive," Smith said. "It just happened that the neighbor was walking by and grabbed my mother-in-law and children and brought them into their house that was still standing."

Smith said the devastation still haunts his children today but ultimately the experience drew the family closer.

"You can't replace a child. Our children are very, very, very special and they grew up in this community," he said. "We are getting together tomorrow with three of our children to attend the village ceremony. We're a very close family. We celebrate every time we're together."

The Smith's ultimately rebuilt their home in the same location and still reside there.

"We moved to this community before the tornado and we've stayed here ever since because of the people," he said. "The people are great here."

Despite the tragedy, Smith said he believes everyone learned something from that day, especially regarding preparedness.

"Twenty years ago, the sirens were starting to go off as we were getting to the subdivision and everything was destroyed," he said. "The technology is better now and our students and staff take drills very seriously. You never know when something may go wrong. But hopefully that will never happen again."