1965-04-11: Palm Sunday Outbreak

[Bob Hartig]

What I thought too, John. I actually contacted the guy who wrote the erroneous report a couple years ago. My recollection, which is dim at this point, is that he couldn't account for where he got his information but didn't seem too concerned about the loosey-goosey writeup. No surprise--this event is marked by conflicting reports. For instance, an odd controversy has existed for years over whether Paul Huffman's "Twins" hit Midway or were in fact the second tornado that hit Dunlap 45 minutes later. Talk to people who hold the latter view and you'll encounter anger over how the reports "got it wrong." They didn't; Paul knew what he saw and where it happened. But multiple-vortex tornadoes were unheard of back then, and the notion that there could have been two "Twins" never crossed anyone's mind. I'm sure that such a repeat phenomenon would have seemed unthinkable to people back then.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Bob:

Interesting that you bring up the Rossville, Indiana tornado. During my time as a news photojournalist in Lafayette, Indiana several years ago, I did quite a bit of digging, research, and multiple interviews about that particular tornadic supercell, which initiated southwest of Colfax. During which, the then Howard County, Indiana sheriff, Marty Talbert introduced me to Donald Cox, former Rossville, Indiana sheriff, and the individual who shot the b&w photo series of the Rossville, Indiana tornado. There were two shots of the golfball to baseball size hail which preceeded the tornado, and four photographs of the large, and very significant tornado which passed south of town. Don gave me all of the originals, of which I really need to scan and get online, at least for a historical perspective. These photos are very comparable to the Paul Huffman photo set from Dunlap in Elkhart County.

This tornado (at Rossville), according to eyewitnesses, was seperate from the devestating, multi-vortex tornado that struck, and nearly obliterated the entire town of Russiaville shortly there after. Of which, I managed to track down 70 professional b&w stills of the damage from that town, and interview the wife of the photographer.

Also.. since returning to Michigan in 2009, I've come across quite a bit of material from the Michigan side of the outbreak, including Comstock Park, and Hillsdale County. Yet the majority of newspapers, still images, movie film, and audio tape I have from the outbreak is predominately from Indiana.

Eventually I plan to combine the masses of multimedia once again, and have a independent site dedicated to the 11-April-1965 Palm Sunday tornado event. The original HTML files from the former site still exist, but I feel a fresh slate, and new design would be appropreiate since the days of the 'wmich.edu/~outbreak65.html' page.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Blake, it is great to hear from you! You were one of the first people I encountered on this forum, and I frequently visited your long-defunct Mammatus.com site and its wmich.edu successor. They were by far the best resources going on the Palm Sunday Tornadoes. I'm pleased to hear that you're contemplating a new multimedia project on that event.

For me, that outbreak was a defining event. I can't tell you what a thrill it was to sit down and talk with Paul Huffman a few years ago and hear straight from the source how he took his famous twin-tornadoes photo. You're well aware that it was one in a series that Paul shot just southeast of Kundred's farmhouse. I had always thought there were six photos in that sequence; I was surprised to learn that there were in fact seven photos, one of which I suppose no one but Paul and Elizabeth have ever seen. I need to go back and listen to my recorded interview with Paul just to make sure I understood him correctly.

I need to get with you and talk about the Palm Sunday Tornadoes in greater depth, if you're up for that. I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[Blake Naftel]

Bob:

I oddly have never had the pleasure of interviewing, or speaking with Mr. Huffman, but know several who have and find his ability to recall the day of 11-Apr-1965 with such vivid detail. I do have third-party copies of the seven piece photo set, but no original glossies as I do for the Rossville (Central Indiana) portion of the outbreak. Did you record Paul on video while you interviewed him? A former collegue of mine interviewed him for WSBT-TV 22 a couple of years ago, but I never did get to see the full video (of the interview).

I'll shoot you a direct e-mail soon, and would love to get together and converse at length about this, and the many other historical events within the Great Lakes region.

Blake

Blake, it is great to hear from you! You were one of the first people I encountered on this forum, and I frequently visited your long-defunct Mammatus.com site and its wmich.edu successor. They were by far the best resources going on the Palm Sunday Tornadoes. I'm pleased to hear that you're contemplating a new multimedia project on that event.

For me, that outbreak was a defining event. I can't tell you what a thrill it was to sit down and talk with Paul Huffman a few years ago and hear straight from the source how he took his famous twin-tornadoes photo. You're well aware that it was one in a series that Paul shot just southeast of Kundred's farmhouse. I had always thought there were six photos in that sequence; I was surprised to learn that there were in fact seven photos, one of which I suppose no one but Paul and Elizabeth have ever seen. I need to go back and listen to my recorded interview with Paul just to make sure I understood him correctly.

I need to get with you and talk about the Palm Sunday Tornadoes in greater depth, if you're up for that. I'll shoot you a PM.

 

[Kristin78]

I don't know if this is the correct thread, but does look like the correct forum. Please see and read below. Any information is greatly appreciated.

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/iwx/program_areas/events/historical/palmsunday1965/

I grew up in the legend of this storm and even had the chance to interview the photographer. I would like to know how a tornado like this happens and if it has happened since. The small image on the article can be clicked on and enlarged.

I don't remember much from my high school interview with Mr. Huffman, and the only reason I got to talk to him was because I was friends with his granddaughter. There are many a accounts and theories of how the tornado after traveling for some time, the/they split even further into two completely separate tornadoes. One of which leveled a neighborhood and fire station. I remember hearing how the damage was so severe, LBJ came to see for himself.

As if everything that was told over the years wasn't enough, my father and mom's brother were caught in this storm. They were lucky to find refuge in a farmhouse. They survived, the truck they were driving did not.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

Dr. Fujita examined the "double funnel" in his paper on the Palm Sunday outbreak if you'd like to read it.

http://docs.lib.noaa.gov/rescue/mwr/098/mwr-098-01-0029.pdf

The short answer is that it's a multivortex tornado, wherein the main vortex of the tornado essentially breaks into two or more subvortices. It's quite common, especially for large, strong tornadoes, but it's not very often that you see such a striking example. Actually several of the tornadoes during the Palm Sunday outbreak were said to have displayed "double funnels" at least briefly, including the tornado that struck the Sunnyside subdivision just to the north in Dunlap, and the same thing has been reported with a number of other historical tornadoes. The Tushka, OK tornado on April 14, 2011 immediately comes to mind as well.

I have larger versions of four of the six Huffman photos on my blog.

http://stormstalker.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/1965-palm-sunday/

Bob Hartig has written about the "twins" as well (including here) and he's very familiar with the event and with Paul Huffman and his photos.

And I believe you mean LBJ visited the damage; it'd be quite miraculous indeed if FDR had come to see for himself.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

As I'm sure most of you know, today is the 50th anniversary of the devastating Palm Sunday outbreak. NWS Northern Indiana (@NWSIWX) is live-tweeting much of the event as it would have unfolded, which is very interesting and engaging. I've also updated my blog with a bunch of new photos and information from this event if anyone is interested.

http://stormstalker.wordpress.com/2013/01/05/1965-palm-sunday/

There are many things that were exceptional about this outbreak, but I think the thing that stands out most to be is the extraordinarily intense kinematics. I'm not sure I've ever seen such an exceptionally intense 500mb jet (large 120-140kt core with an absolute maximum of 159kts(!) observed at DDC) with such an event, especially not associated with the sort of broad, moderately unstable warm sector and excellent veering with height that was in place on 4/11/65.

 

[Bob Hartig]

Thanks for posting, Shawn. Your observation about the H5 jet core is spot-on; it was absolutely insane. But the 159 knots is new to me. Wow! But even apart from that, the shear in that system was staggering, and consequently, the storms that day were rocketships. Moreoever, reports of hydra-like "tendrils" or "fingers" (as described in David Wagler's book, The Mighty Whirlwind), characteristic of violent tornadoes, were numerous with that event.

On the personal side, I posted the following on Facebook and thought I would share here as well:

Today is the 50-year anniversary of the April 11, 1965, Palm Sunday tornadoes. On that dark, violent evening five decades ago, 47 tornadoes raked across the Great Lakes region from Iowa to Ohio, taking 272 lives (including an Iowa man who died of his injuries a month later, after the official stats were finalized).

Hardest hit were the states of Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio, with the highest death toll occurring in Dunlap, Indiana, just south of Elkhart. There, a massive multi-vortex tornado swept through the Sunnyside and Kingston Heights neighborhoods, killing 28. My friend Debbie Watters now owns and oversees a memorial park on the property where her childhood home was swept away by the tornado, which claimed her brother Stevie. The park, and the commemorative events Debbie has held there over the years, have provided a point of contact and healing for those who survived the northern Indiana tornadoes. Today's half-century commemoration was somber, moving, faith-filled, bittersweet, and powerful, and I was honored that Debbie asked me to be a part of it by playing "Amazing Grace" on the saxophone.

Much missed was my other "Tornado Lady," Pat Bowman (McIntosh), whose story from that day and my own story cross in a remarkable way. Wish you'd been there, Pat! I was delighted to see Betty Huffman, wife of Paul Huffman, the Elkhart Truth photographer who took the Pulitzer Award-winning photograph of twin funnels straddling US 33 just two miles down the road, where the Midway Trailer Court got demolished. That iconic photo is one of the most famous tornado photographs ever taken, and it remains the most chilling I've ever seen. Paul passed away several months ago. He was one of the nicest guys--sharp as a tack, funny, peppery, with plenty of stories to tell, and Betty is a warm, sweet lady. She told me that "Amazing Grace" was Paul's favorite hymn.

Wish I had pictures to share, but when I pulled out my camera, I discovered that the battery needs charging. Ditto my video camera. What a special day, though--sobering, heartwarming, one I will remember and treasure.

To the above FB post I'll add this: After the event was over, I headed toward the area where Paul Huffman took his famous photo of the twin funnels razing the Midway Trailer Court. I always visit that spot when I'm down there. CR 17 now bridges US 33 where the south part of the court used to be, and it serves as an excellent indicator of the tornado's path. The northern quadrant of the court, where a few trailers escaped unscathed, had until recently retained all the haunting, telltale earmarks of an old, long vanished community, with rows of soldierly old trees lining lanes of crumbling asphalt. But that last remnant of the site disappeared under the bulldozers a few months ago, and a new business now occupies the grounds. Little is left of the landscape that existed half a century ago. But there is one landmark I know of that remains. And as I drive by, I picture a gutsy young newspaper photographer standing on the roadside, his leg hooked around the fender of his car to brace himself against the inflow winds, snapping the photograph of his life as death blows through half a mile up the highway and his wife screams at him from inside the car.

 

[Shawn Schuman]

That sounds wonderful and bittersweet, Bob. I wish I'd had an opportunity to meet Paul. I'd have loved to pick his brain a bit, and everyone I know who has had the opportunity to do so describes him just as you do. It's still amazing to me just how lucky that shot was; to be exactly at that spot, at exactly the right time, and taking photos at exactly those moments. Truly a once in a lifetime thing.

Debbie was, I believe, recently featured in WSBT's short program on the event that they posted online tonight. The small memorial also makes an appearance.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/speical-report-palm-sunday-tornadoes-50-years-later/32318184

Anyhow, I'm happy to see that there are people working to keep the memory of this event (and others) alive. These events are important, and so are the personal stories, photos, videos and other memories that serve to keep the events alive. It's a shame that more effort doesn't go into preserving these things.

 

[Andy Berrington]

Article I wrote up for US Tornadoes on this: http://www.ustornadoes.com/2015/04/...one-of-the-worst-tornado-outbreaks-on-record/

 

[Bob Hartig]

Great analysis, Andy!

 

[Andy Berrington]

The photo at the link before shows the first in the pair of F4 tornadoes that followed similar paths through southern Lower Michigan, obviously a very large tornado (as advertised by eyewitness accounts/damage surveys).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152665614841890&set=o.689940834466186&type=3&theater

 

[Bob Hartig]

The photo at the link before shows the first in the pair of F4 tornadoes that followed similar paths through southern Lower Michigan, obviously a very large tornado (as advertised by eyewitness accounts/damage surveys).

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152665614841890&set=o.689940834466186&type=3&theater

An actual photo of that tornado. Wow! That's an incredible find. Now if only a home movie from that day would emerge from someone's attic.

 

[Andy Berrington]

An actual photo of that tornado. Wow! That's an incredible find. Now if only a home movie from that day would emerge from someone's attic.

I'm sure there are more photos like this of that day and others. Dare I guess that there might be a picture of the Tri-State Tornado lost in the murk somewhere?

 

[Blake Naftel]

As a follow up, the National Weather Service in Northern Indiana (IWX) resurrected the long-since defunct historical PSO page, updating it with additional stories, meteorological background, and photos, many re-scans from the original page. That link, for those whom have not viewed it, can be accessed via: http://www.weather.gov/iwx/1965_palmsunday_50

Blake

Today is the 47th anniversary of the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornadoes. I was nine years old when the outbreak occurred. The northern Indiana storms struck just twenty miles south and southeast of where my family lived in Niles, Michigan. First Koontz Lake, Wyatt, and Lapaz got hit, and then the storms traveled northeast on a lethal path toward Dunlap, Midway, and the Shore Community south of Shipshewana. From there, the supercells crossed into Michigan east of Niles, where many more lives were lost, notably around Coldwater Lake and Devil's Lake.

Another burst of storms farther north took lives where I now live in the Grand Rapids area, primarily due to a long-track F4 tornado that tore across Alpine Avenue northwest of town. Several other weaker tornadoes struck the area as well, including one that hit just a couple miles south of where I live, and yet another that struck across the river from where my family moved into Cascade a few years later. There appears to be no record for that tornado, but I've encountered lots of anecdotal evidence.

Blake Naftel maintained a great website on the Palm Sunday Tornadoes, but it's long gone, and that's too bad, because among its photos was a color photo of a tornado near Rossville, Indiana--where a third band of deadly storms moved through--that I've never seen elsewhere. My own blog contains a couple of photos you're unlikely to encounter elsewhere of the Lapaz tornado. You can check them out here.

Later, after sundown, more tornadoes struck in Ohio from Toledo southward, claiming still more lives.

My friend Debbie Forsythe-Watters maintains a tornado memorial park at the site of her childhood home, which got swept away when the deadliest tornado of the outbreak hit the Sunnyside neighborhood in Dunlap. I've talked with a number of survivors in recent year, including Paul Huffman, the retired newspaper photographer who took the famous photograph of twin funnels hitting the Midway Trailer Park along US 33 between Dunlap and Goshen. I've walked those trailer park grounds, or what's left of them, and visited some of the other sites that got hit. For some reason, that event has always had a grip on me.

I've read the book by Dan Cherry on the Manitou Beach tornadoes. Dan did an outstanding job of unearthing the events and the aftermath of that day in one hard-hit community that was visited by not just one, but two violent tornadoes.