Tornado injuries related to housing in the Plainfield tornado

On 28 August 1990, a tornado in Will County, Illinois, caused 29 deaths and more than US $200 million in damage. Risk factors for impact-related morbidity and mortality were studied.

A case-control study was conducted of 26 people hospitalized or killed, and 116 injured, randomly selected people who were in houses damaged by the tornado. To obtain information on study subjects, telephone interviews were conducted, and hospital records, coroners' reports, and American Red Cross records were abstracted. Structural details on houses were collected from tax assessor records.

Cases were more likely than controls to have been in multistorey houses than in single-storey houses (OR = 3.9; 95% CI: 1.2-13.2). The risk associated with houses built after 1972 (OR = 7.9) and those built from 1962 to 1972 (OR = 2.2) was greater than for those built before 1962 (OR = 1.0; chi 2 for trend = 12.1; P < 0.01). Being in the basement when the tornado hit was protective (OR = 0.1; 95% CI: 0.0-0.4).

One-storey houses were safer than multistorey houses, and basements were safer than other rooms. The association of risk with the construction date of the house is a new finding and should be examined in further studies.