Five Minutes With Local Storm Chaser Danny Neal

Danny Neal shares his expertise and adventures hunting tornadoes with Patch.

Five Minutes With the 'Tornado Kid'

Patch spends five minutes with local storm chaser, Danny Neal.

By day he runs into the burning buildings for his job as a local firefighter, but during his free time drives into tornados. We caught up with Evergreen Park storm chaser Danny Neal, 25, who shared some of his storm chasing adventures. Neal has cultivated friendships all across the plains states and is known to give talks to elementary school students. He also maintains a website of his storm photos and videos, Northern Illinois Storm Chaser, and looks forward to one day completing his meteorology degree. Tell us how you got started storm chasing? I grew up in Evergreen Park. I was like every other typical kid; I was terrified of storms. My dad (retired Oak Lawn Fire Capt. Greg Neal) would take me around locally in central Illinois to look…

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Sixth Oak Lawn Tornado Image Discovered

Historic photo found in library archives 46 years years after the infamous Oak Lawn Tornado.

The media footprint of the infamous Oak Lawn Tornado that tore through Oak Lawn and clipped Hometown, Evergreen Park and Beverly in 1967 expanded with the discovery of a sixth image in the archives of Oak Lawn Public Library. Unlike today, when ordinary citizens can record and photograph breaking news with a smartphone, and stormchasers, images of the 1967 tornado are extremely rare. The only EF4 tornado known to hit the Chicago region, five images of the Oak Lawn Tornado are known to exist, along with a five-minute audio recording of the actual storm blowing over Oak Lawn. Connect to Patch: Oak Lawn / Evergreen Park / Beverly-Mt. Greenwood The photograph shot by Peter B. Crombie was published in the Suburban Economist on April 30, 1967, …

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Library Needs Help Collecting Images for Oak Lawn Tornado History Book

Sunday marks the 46th anniversary of the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado. Oak Lawn Library exhibits and historic archive will be open throughout the weekend.

It was the definitive moment in Oak Lawn’s history, and now Oak Lawn Library historian Kevin Korst is collecting those moments in a new local history book due out in 2014. Korst has been working on the book about the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado, whose 46th anniversary falls on Sunday, for the past several months. The local history book is a follow up to another from Arcadia Publishing’s Images in America series, tracing Oak Lawn’s history from sleepy prairie town to a bustling, post-World War II suburb through historic documents and photos. “After we finished the Oak Lawn history book it was on our radar to do another one,” Korst said. “The topic that immediately came to mind was the 1967 tornado. People have an emotional tie to it.” Read Patch'…

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Oak Lawn Library's Historic Artifacts Tell Chilling Tale of 1967 Tornado

Saturday, April 21, marks the 45th anniversary of the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado.

Whether the dead of January or near the anniversary, not a day goes by when someone doesn’t stop by the Oak Lawn Public Library’s Local History Room to inquire about the Oak Lawn Tornado of 1967. Like O-L Patch on Facebook. This Saturday, April 21, marks the 45th anniversary of the worst tornado ever to hit the immediate Chicago region in history. “I’ve been here four years and every day someone stops in or calls to ask about the tornado,” local history coordinator Kevin Korst said. “It changed the course of Oak Lawn and its future development.” Watch resident Andy Koszyk's home movie of the day after the tornado struck. At approximately 5:30 p.m. on a humid Friday afternoon, and EF-4 tornado—as wide as a city block with estimated winds of…

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New Photos of 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado Surface

Resident finds color slides of actual funnel cloud that nearly destroyed Oak Lawn in 1967.

Two, never before published images of the actual funnel cloud that tore through Oak Lawn on April 21, 1967 have resurfaced in an “icky” attic. The pictures – color slides taken by Oak Lawn-resident Ron Bacon – were found in the attic of Bacon’s former home. Terry Stone, who purchased Bacon’s home from his daughter ten years ago, found the slides while renovating the attic.  “Before I remarried five years ago it was just me and my son,” Stone said. “The attic was so icky and dirty I never went up there. When my husband and his daughter moved in, he suggested renovating the space over the garage.” Bacon took the photos from the parking lot of the Dominick’s Food Store at 87th Street and Cicero Avenue. The photos are the only known color …

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ENCORE: 'Voice of a Tornado'

Oak Lawn Patch reprises its story of a little known recording of the actual 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado.

Sunday marks the 46th anniversary of the 1967 Oak Lawn Tornado. Patch reprises one of its most popular stories 'Voice of a Tornado.' Readers' comments, many recounting their own experiences of survival and loss, are left intact as additional documentation of a day that will live in infamy in Oak Lawn's history. Please add your own memories and thoughts. On April 21, 1967, Robert Kehe, manager of the Coral Theater in Oak Lawn and the father of six children, stepped outside onto 95th Street and Cicero Avenue to record the start of a thunderstorm on his reel-to-reel tape recorder. Read more 1967 tornado stories on Oak Lawn Patch. Instead he captured the sound of the worst tornado ever to hit the immediate Chicago area, which many believed …

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Ron Stufflebeam

4:43 pm on Saturday, April 27, 2013

Yep, thanks Tom! Hey Jean, let Fred know that Terry & Gary Burks live in Phoenix when he gets ready to retire which must be coming soon. I retired last Aug & am enjoying it. Terry has lived there for 20 years or so & loves it, he is in the banking business & living in the Scottsdale area. Should you or Fred talk to Jim, Rich or Manny tell them hello & good luck on your move out west.   more ›