Disasters: The Cruelest Month

Out of sullen spring skies over four Midwestern states last week came a succession of killer tornadoes. The twist ers hit Illinois, Missouri, Michigan and Indiana. Scattering cars and buses like playthings, reducing office buildings and whole residential sections to rubble, the tornadoes' lash took more than 50 lives, injured 1,500, and destroyed up to $50 million worth of property.

Worst hit were the Chicago suburb of Oak Lawn and the nearby town of Belvidere. At Oak Lawn, a swirling funnel smashed a shopping center, ripped up a trailer park and slammed into a roller-skating rink filled with youngsters. It left at least 30 dead, several of them teen-agers with roller skates still strapped to their feet. At Belvidere, the tornado sliced through five subdivisions and a supermarket, severely damaged a hospital, nicked an auto plant, and then headed toward the local high school, where students were just finishing the day. "A girl fell and somebody said, 'Watch her get blown away,' " recalled Gordon Shook, 18. "Then everybody got blown away." All told, 20 persons were killed in Belvidere, including several students who were on school buses that were crushed by the winds.

The storm, said weathermen, had 44 separate funnels, probably the most for a single day in nearly half a century.