Anyone remember the Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965?

[fudgie]

50 yrs ago today. Of course I wasn't born yet.  Family hasn't talked about it much altho it happened close by us. Mostly to the county just south.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1965_Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak

[0leman]

I was in college in Oklahoma at the time.  Yeah, it was not something even a college kid could/would ignore.   Lots of damage and lost of life.

[solo1]

Oh yes, Brian, i do remember it.

The tornadoes went north and south of Ft. Wayne. Ft. Wayne and New Haven lost Indiana and Michigan power since many of the towers went down.  We were lucky, no damage in our area.

I was tearing off the asbestos shingles from the house that day, getting ready to put on aluminum siding, and keeping one eye on the sky as the warnings were out.  I was worried about water getting into the house but we were lucky.  The next day, the contractor came in and started doing the construction on the garage..  I believe that he had to use hand tools since no power and battery operated saws weren't available yet.

As you know from history, many small towns were practically wiped out.

  Mark was one year old and Chris wasn't around yet. It seems like i get to say that was a long time ago more and more.

[tjohnson]

I was not yet born, but my mother and father lived just north of this photo in Elkhart Indiana. Mom tells horror stories of this day. The picture just shows the double tornado, however I believe that 16 tornados were confirmed around Elkhart that day. A good friend of mine, (he's a goldwing owner) actually knew the photographer of this picture. He can't say enough about this guy, or his courage to stand there and take this photo with the equipment that he had back then. This picture is just south of Dunlap, on US 33. The house shown was standing until sometime in the 80's, then commercial development wiped it out. Many of my reletives lived through this, one uncle was a fireman for Condord Fire Department and he talked about the pure devistation he encountered when he arrived. He said you really couldn't tell where you were at, debri scattered everywhere, and houses that were there gone, and open field littered with a hodge podge of things. He once said from the top of Goshen to just below Concrd mail was just devistated, I didn't live through it, but I have heard tons of stories about it. Many stories that did not have a happy ending unfortunately.

[FryeVRCCDS0067]

I would have been 7 and don't remember it. I do remember Mom talking about it many times though.

[old2soon]

I was 14 months into my 4 year hitch in the U S Navy. Don't really remember this BUT my Sister in Law has her law practice in Island Lake and the M/C shop my brother works at is right next to her law offices. Got my very first speeding ticket in Island Lake Il.  Had no idea THAT many people had died.  RIDE SAFE.

[Grumpy]

Remember that well, I was 21 when it happened. We lived in the tornado alley in Missouri and had a few near misses from some bad ones. The ones in Indiana were a wake up call, terrible loss of life. 

[houstone]

We were on our way to Weir Cook Airport to pick up Grandma.  Had to take refuge in an apartment complex when the street signs started blowing by on 38th St.  Terrifying...

[doubletee]

I was 3 and don't remember it,  but my dad was a lineman at the time, and he and a few others from our hometown of Montpelier, OH, headed up to SW Michigan (Hillsdale, MI, if I remember correctly) to help get the lines back up in the aftermath. Mom said she was worried sick about him being up there because the tornados kept coming in waves.