Palm Sunday Tornado Memorial in Dunlap, Indiana

[Bob Hartig]

Last Saturday I visited the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado memorial park in the Sunnyside neighborhood of Dunlap, Indiana. From there, I drove down U.S. 33 a couple miles to the site of the old Midway Trailer Court, which was destroyed by the infamous double funnel that became the icon of this disaster.

While I wasn't directly affected by the tornadoes, yet as a boy I lived not far from Dunlap at the time of the outbreak, and my connection with the event is personal. From time to time, the little memorial park exerts a strange, magnetic pull on me, and I make the drive down.

This time, I recorded my thoughts and observations in my blog, along with some photos of the memorial park. Those who take an interest in the Palm Sunday Outbreak, please drop by and give my 9/4 post a read. Not trying to push my site here--this is just the easiest way I know of to make the text and photos available.

 

[John A. Sellers]

We try to vist the memorial either on Palm Sunday or April 11th, the date it happened on.We have talked with some of the family members and nieghbors who were there that day.Sometimes the local tv news will come and interview some of them as well.We've planted some of the plants that you will see there.Its a nice memorial and it seems to help the families who lost family members.

 

[Dennis Dennison]

I lived in Toledo, Ohio back then. I was 10 years old, I remember my Dad and Mom and some friends sitting outside talking about how odd the sky looked.
I honestly cant remember how it looked, but they were seriously worried, one neighbor lady was saying something about tornados. First time I ever heard the word in general talking. Later I was doing my homework, I remeber it was storming outside, but thought nothing of it. Next I remember hearing an odd sound, not like a strong wind, but a noise, and then the sound of something like a ricochet type sound. That turned out to be the electrical wires and the part of the house they attached to flying off. I ran into the living room, there were no lights but I saw my Dad open the front door, then the screen door, and it flew out of his hands. He stepped back, and slamed the door shut.
We sat in the dark waiting for it to be done, I rather doubt any of us really knew what was taking place at that moment. Just that is was something terrible.

Our house sustained enough damage that we moved from it. The houses behind ours had a lot of damage, and the ones behind those were nearly destroyed. The block behind ours had several houses that were gone.

Thus my interest in weather and tornados began.

I am always amazed at just how little info and pictures there are of this day in Toledo.

 

[Sam Stone]

For those interested, here is a Wikipedia article on the event including an enlarged version of the photo on the memorial plaque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak_of_1965

Sam

 

[Dennis Dennison]

Thanks, Yess I have found a copy of the twin glowing tornados--
Tornadoes continued from Indiana into Ohio, and additional fatalities occurred across the border. A double tornado was sighted near Toledo, Ohio and that system devastated northern parts of the city with F4 damage. Other violent tornadoes occurred near the Indiana/Ohio border.
So my first encounter with a tornado was with an F-4---as muchas i detested the idiocy of the Movie tornado, when Helen Hunt goes all loopy and says she wants to see it--I actually can realate.

All I have see is a brief F1 in Roswell, NM, A storm that produced numerous funnels in the area of Bowling Green, Ohio, and tons of huge dust devils in Arizona.

I also still lived in Toledo during the 74 outbreak. I was living in a double wide modulare home. Tremendously high thunderstorms were coming in, it got bad and then reall bad--Remember the old trick about tuning a TV to Channel2 and if the screen shrank a tornado was near--well, the screen sgrank lightining was so intense I laid down on the living room carpet and grabbed big handful, The home began to shake in the wind then it seemed to have began vibrating almost00I peeked out the rear window onto a field with young trees--they were all laying flat in the wind.

 

[RWilbanks]

Recently, I have been going through a series of Kodachrome slides that I purchased at an estate sale, and I came across this photo taken in Elkhart, Indiana. This was shot in the late afternoon on April 11, 1965, at the New York Central Railroad's Robert R. Young Yard. I would be digging a hole in the ground if I saw the sky looking like this.

73s

Ron

 

[Larry J. Kosch]

Thanks!

For those interested, here is a Wikipedia article on the event including an enlarged version of the photo on the memorial plaque: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Sunday_tornado_outbreak_of_1965

Sam

Thanks Sam!

I found the parts in Wikipedia about the Aftermath and Suction Vortices interesting. Until that Palm Sunday, the NWS have used the terms FORECAST and ALERT. Since that event, they have changed over to TORNADO WATCH and TORNADO WARNING terms that they use today.

Interesting to read about Dr. Ted Fujita's research about the Suction Vortices that would seemingly hit one house and leave another house alone. This is probably what hit Reed Timmer and his Dominator last summer in that Aurora NE tornado. He got suction vorticed!!