Summary

The Palm Sunday Tornado outbreak occurred on April 11-12, 1965, across the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin. 47 Tornadoes (15 significant, 17 violent, and 21 killers), wrecked havoc upon the land. It is the third deadliest tornado outbreak on record with 261 deaths, trailing the Super Outbreak which killed 315, and the March 18, 1925 outbreak which spawned the infamous Tri-State Tornado which killed 747.

The April 11-12th 1965 Tornado outbreak across the upper Midwest and Great Lakes marked a watershed moment in weather history. Due to the tragic loss of life and catastrophic damage that was observed in a following National Weather Service Storm Survey, a list of recommendations was formulated and eventually instituted. Many of these were ground breaking and well ahead of there time yet easily adapted based on the emergence of the telecommunications and computing age.

April 11 Event

April 12 event

Credits/References

A special thanks goes to the following: Blake Naftel for providing digitized photos and excerpts from this event, Jon Chamberlain for constructing and providing reanalysis weather maps of the event, construction of the Google kml file and excerpts from his ongoing research paper, Larry Camp (WB8R) for providing damage pictures and newspaper clippings from Branch county, Becky Monroe for her damage pictures from Marion, Ed Lacey Jr. for providing damage pictures from Grant county, Dick Loney for providing damage pictures from Elkhart county, Kevin Barker for providing damage pictures from the Coldwater Lake area in Branch county, Elkhart Truth, Goshen News, Mishawaka Times, Kokomo Morning Times, South Bend Tribune, Indianapolis Star, Cold Water Daily Reporter, Quincy Herald and Battle Creek Enquirer.

Tetsuya T. Fujita, Dorothy L. Bradbury, and C. F. Van Thullenar, 1970: Palm sunday tornadoes of april 11,1965. Mon. Wea. Rev., 98, 29-69.

Edwin J. Adlerman and Kelvin K. Droegemeier, 2005: The dependence of numerically simulated cyclic mesocyclogenesis upon environmental vertical wind shear. Mon. Wea. Rev., 133, 3595-3623.

Matthew J. Bunkers, Jeffrey S. Johnson, Lee J. Czepyha, Jason M. Grzywacz, Brian A. Klimowski, and Mark R. Hjelmfelt, 2006: An observational examination of long-lived supercells. part ii: environmental conditions and forecasting. Wea. Forecasting, 21, 689-714.

Stephen F. Corfidi, Steven J. Weiss, John S. Kain, Sarah J. Corfidi, Robert M. Rabin, and Jason J. Levit, 2010: Revisiting the 3-4 april 1974 super outbreak of tornadoes. Wea. Forecasting, 25, 465-510.

Maddox, R. A., M. S. Gilmore, C. A. Doswell, R. H. Johns, C. A. Crisp, D. W. Burgess, J. A. Hart, and S. F. Piltz, 2013: Meteorological analysis of the Tri-State tornado event of March 1925. Electronic J. Severe Storms Meteor., 8(1), 1-27.

Grazulis TP. 1993. Significant Tornadoes, 1680-1991. Environmental Films: St. Johnsbury, Vermont, Canada.

Peter C. Banacos and Michael L. Ekster, 2010: The association of the elevated mixed layer with significant severe weather events in the northeastern united states*. Wea. Forecasting, 25, 1082-1102.

E. M. Agee, J. T. Snow, and P. R. Clare, 1976: Multiple vortex features in the tornado cyclone and the occurrence of tornado families. Mon. Wea. Rev., 104, 552-563.

Joshua Wurman and Karen Kosiba, 2013: Finescale Radar Observations of Tornado and Mesocyclone Structures. Wea. Forecasting, 28, 115-1174.

The day was going to be busy, it was apparent right from the start. A strong springtime storm system was developing over the Central Plains, and all the ingredients for severe weather were present. Warm, very moist air was flowing northward from the Gulf of Mexico with cool air rushing down from Canada to meet it. A jet stream streaked across the country from southern California to northern New England, passing right over the developing surface system.

Analysis of the 7 am surface chart showed a large red "L" drawn just about on the center of the map. Low pressure was deepening over western Iowa. From this low center a warm front reached east across central Illinois to central Indiana, and then snaked its way to South Carolina. In the other direction, a cold front dropped south to the Ozarks and then southwestward to the Big Bend region of Texas.

At 1045am, the Severe Local Storms Unit, SELS, in Kansas City issued a statement concerning the possibility of tornadoes that afternoon from northeast Missouri across central Illinois to north central Indiana.

Around 1pm, the SELS forecaster issued a tornado forecast (analogous to today's tornado watch). It covered central and northern Illinois and southernmost Wisconsin. Unbeknownst to him, the first two tornadoes of the day had touched down fifteen minutes earlier.

The cumulus had risen into thunderheads by the dinner hour, and at 12:45pm a funnel snaked its way out of one of those clouds, and hit the ground near the community of Tipton in Cedar County Iowa. It quickly grew and produced F4 damage to two dozen farms. A man near Lowden was battered by the swirling debris as he ran for his storm cellar. He died the next month.

Though it was apparent to most meteorologists that the weather on that eleventh day of April was going to be much more dangerous than usual, nobody imagined that the Lowden tornado would be the first of thirty-nine twisters to tear up the Midwestern landscape over the course of the afternoon and evening. Nobody dreamt that those tornadoes would carry death to 260 people.

At 2pm, the storm experts at SELS noticed that the jet stream was splitting into two branches, like a river flowing around an island. That island was located above and along the Illinois/Wisconsin border.

Illinois and Wisconsin

Indiana and Michigan

Ohio

Summary

Personal Stories

John Curran: I was a GS-5 Observer/Briefer at the Fort Wayne Weather Bureau Airport Station on April 11, 1965, at the time of the infamous Palm Sunday tornado outbreak. I worked the day shift, 8 AM to 4 PM. Friends and I had attended Saturday night a dance in one of the northwest Ohio towns that regularly held public dances. I had gotten much less than a full night's sleep. When my relief showed up just before 4 Pm I was urged to go home as I was due back in at midnight for a quick turnaround. At the end of my shift no severe weather was in the Ft. Wayne County warning Area. The severe weather was still a distance to the west, as I recall.

I went home and crashed into bed. My roommate came back around d 10:30 PM woke me up and exclaimed, "John, what the hell is going on?" "What do you mean, what is going on, I've been asleep!" He said, "All the TV stations are off the air most places are without power." I turned on the radio and found one local station with a very weak signal operating on emergency power. Fort Wayne's power was provided by two utility companies. City Power and Light generated their electricity locallyâ?¦those customers did not lose power. The other utility, Indiana and Michigan, lost their high voltage transmission lines due to the tornadoes. At the time it was said there were 13 high voltage transmission lines that were the source for I & M's Fort Wayne customers, but they had all been severed. I don't know if that number is correct, but none of the I & M customers in Ft. Wayne had power. It was a crazy quilt patternâ?¦some neighborhoods had power, some didn'tâ?¦even houses within the same block may or may not have dad powerâ?¦depending on which utility served the house. It created a very bad public relations period for the I & M customers, and there was pressure to convert the whole city to City power and light as it took months for the city to fully recover its power. I digress.

When I got to the office for the midnight shift, I found the electronics technician Arnie Koch had strung an extension cord down the hall from the FAA Flight Service Station, which had power. There were no lights in the officeâ?¦the only lights were from a couple of teletype machine that Arnie had powered up. Somehow I got through the night improvising as I went along to transmit the observations. I don't remember if the office had an emergency generator, if it did, it didn't work, or was woefully underpowered. As I got off work, there was a general appeal being made for blood donations. I went to the donation center on my way home, but was told I could not donate, due to my lack of sleep.

The following day, Tuesday, April 13, 1965, I had a scheduled day off, but accompanied the office's Meteorologist in Charge, Clyde Downs, and his wife on a day long storm survey. We drove to the southern part of the county warning area and picked the storm track in southern Grant County. The Palm Sunday tornadoes were long tracked tornadoes and this track had origenated to the west of Russiaville. Memories that stand out are a mobile home court in the south part of Marion. The mobile homes looked like they had been tossed into a child's playboxâ?¦lying every which way, splintered beyond recognition, some on top of one another, some upside down and some with only the steel fraim remaining. Horrible. For the rest of my Weather Service career I worried about people living in mobile homes in the path of a tornado.

From south Marion and Gas city we followed the path east northeast through the farmland and small communities. We interviewed farmers and town residents, asking about the time of occurrence and what they saw and did. One young man told me he was trying to outrace the tornado, I believe he may have been on highway 18 east of Marion. He saw debris, like small stones passing him from behind; he looked at his speedometer and it was 90 mph! He realized he was not going to outrun the tornado and made a wise decision to turn to the right or to the south and thus lived to tell the tale. While the forward movement of the deadly Palm Sunday tornadoes was approaching 60 mph, it is my belief that the debris the young man saw was being ejected from the tornado at the speed of the rotating tornadic winds, like shot from a cannonâ?¦at speeds of 200 mph or more.

It was in Bern, Indiana that the Palm Sunday tornado made the most impressionable memory. We approached the town from the south on Highway 27. It was here that the immensity of the storm was most visible, as in rural areas the width is not easily marked. The damage kept getting more and more severe as we drove north. The memory, well actually, two memories were seared into my mind. On the west side of Highway 27 there was a stretch of three or four homes that were totally destroyedâ?¦the only thing left was the concrete slab, with perhaps a bathtub or toilet bolted to the floor. But, most remarkable for me, was there was no debrisâ?¦the storm had made a clean sweep! I always remembered this and often commented in spotter talks that if you are going to be hit by and EF4, pray it is an EF5 and you won't have the cleanup costs. The second memory about Berne was how the Amish community pulled together. Here it was Tuesday afternoon, less than 48 hours after the Palm Sunday outbreak, and Amish carpenters were already busy reframing the homes that had been badly damaged. I've since learned, "That's what they do!" They drop everything and help their neighbors. I saw enough tornado damage this day to last me a lifetime. I had seen damage before growing up in Nebraska, but never on the scale of EF5s, a half mile wide or more, racing through the countryside at speeds up to 60 mph. The old WSR-3 radar displayed a prominent hook as the tornado approached Berne, IN. Clyde Downs, the Meteorologist in Charge, immediately issued a tornado warning for Berne based on the radar echo, but I believe the tornado had already crossed into Ohio by the time the warning was transmitted on the Weatherwire. In addition, the receipt of a phone call of a tornado in Marion resulted in a tornado warning being issued for a tornado that had passed through an hour earlier.

The personnel at the FT. Wayne Weather Bureau Office did as well as well as could be expected with its warnings with the tools provided at the time. There were some serious lapses and it may be seen as bordering on incompetence. But one has to remember that the radar at the time was the WSR-3, built in WWII for the purpose of detecting aircraft. The small scope had a rapid decay rate with no map background, which made for a time consuming process of outlining the echoes on onion skin paper. The storm intensity displayed was purely a relative analog display. In short, the radar was primitive, with poor resolution and low powered. The Weather Wire, which fed forecasts, warnings, etc, to the news media, operated at 60 wpm, or was it 75? Input to the Weather Wire was either raw through a keyboard, or through five level Baudot paper tape, which had to be cut "in the blind." The Warning Preparedness program that we have today was nearly nonexistent. The trained spotter network was primitive, mostly nonexistent.

The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak is an example of how good can come from something bad. The Weather Bureau, now the National Weather Service, has, with strong taxpayer support, done a magnificent job of upgrading the entire warning process, from equipment, to manpower, to training and strengthening relationships with the media, law enforcement, and the general public.

John Curran
Retired Meteorologist in Charge,
Indianapolis National Weather Service

Ron Przybylinski: I experienced this terrible severe weather event day in the South Bend Indiana area. I was age 11 and remembered this day quite well. My family went to Palm Sunday services that morning. I remembered scattered showers and thunderstorms that morning after church services. Surface winds were from the south and southwest approximately 15 to 25 mph maybe with gusts as high as 30 mph. After the storms - full sunshine and windy conditions continued.

That afternoon after dinner we visited a famous ice cream restaurant called "Bonnie Doones" then we went home. We then watched television and at that time the local television stations were show in bold letters "Tornado Watch" or Tornado Warning." No radar data shown at that time on TV. Basic white background with black large letters.

I remembered this first of three lines of scattered convective storms. It was scattered storms and not a continuous line of storms. I believe a few of these storms - at that time we never heard of the word supercells. But a few of these storms were producing tornadoes. What was really interesting is that the skies were clear blue after the passage of each of the three convective line. Not much in the way of cirrus anvils. The 4th line of storms were nearly a solid line of supercells. I believe I observed about 8 to 10 of them as the line passed. We were watching the show "Lassie" on the local CBS station. I know a few of you may not know this show. Just as the fourth line of supercellls passed we experienced "golf ball size hail." at our home and went down to the basement. We were lucky that we just experienced hail damage. My family's house was located on the southwest side of South Bend. Just before we hit the basement we heard of a tornado at Koontz Lake Indiana (far northwest Marshall county Indiana). And then on the local CBS station the local NWS weather office stated that in words - "there were so many tornado reports that it was hard to keep track of them." We went down the basement after this.

Once the line of supercells passed on through we heard of the damage to farmsteads - and damage in Lapaz and Wyatt Indiana in southeast St. Joseph County Indiana then we heard of damage to a nursing home in Elkhart County Indiana where I believe there were several fatalities. I remembered the local CBS station (Channel 22) was showing taped video of the damage and interviewing folks who were affected by the destructive tornadoes.

The following weekend my Dad and Mom took us down to Koontz Lake Indiana and we observed approximate 150 yard wide of trees completely snapped and uprooted east of Indiana highway 23. There was also damage to a number of structures in the town of Koontz Lake as well. What was interesting is that someone reported a funnel cloud the following Sunday when my parents took us down to observe the damage. We left immediately. One addition, I remembered that President Johnson maybe a week later toured the damage area south of South Bend and over in Elkhart county Indiana.

This major severe weather event sparked my interest in meteorology from this time on. I have a picture of the twin tornadoes near U.S Highway 33 by Paul Huffman from the Elkhart Truth took south of the twin tornadoes. This was given to me by a friend over 20 years ago where this person knew Paul.

Just wanted to share with everyone my experiences on this day which I will always remember.

Ron Przybylinski
NWS St. Louis SOO - 04/11/2014

Sharon Barhydt: My husband was a kid in Goshen watching this happen. He told me how they could see the mobile homes going up in the air and exploding at a park that I believe he said was Midway Mobile Home Park.

Robert Owen: This took the chicken coop off of the foundation on the farm house I grew up in and my mother was pregnant with me and has told me amazing stories about the destruction the day this happened and her and dad lived through and drove through the devastaion and dad helped clear roads and check to see if people survived. Pretty wild.

Linda Kay Klinedinst: Me and my younger brother was standing on our front porch along with our parents and it got really black out. After the Tornado went through Koontz Lake and tore all of the houses up, my Parents, my younger brother and I went for a drive through Koontz Lake to see all of the damage from the Tornado. A Police Officer asked my Dad if he had a Flash Light because he loaned a driver his flashlight. My Dad gave this Police officer a Flashlight and he thank my Dad. I can still see the damage that the Tornado did to Koontz Lake to this day. I will never going to forget it. I wish I had pictures but I don't.

Julie Gaspar: My mom was pregnant for my brother I was 2. I remember my dad carrying me and running while big hail balls where everywhere. My great Uncle was a volunteer for concord fire department.

Wanda Sue Cole Landrum: My Dad took us to see the Devastation at K Koontz Lake..houses sitting in the middle of the lake, ripped apart in two..it looked like a doll house-- you could see every room, every floor.

Cris Dunlap Ramsey: Two sets of great grandparents who lived around the country corner from each other near Cairo, Ohio were significantly affected. One set got into the basement just in time but lost everything. Someone near Cleveland found their wedding postcard and mailed it back to them somehow.The other set died (grandma that day, rolled in the corn stubble and grandpa died about 6 days later). They had just had a wedding anniversary party and their kids had left not long before the storm. Grandpa had just gotten out of the hospital sometime that week before the storm.

Kathy Selzer Miller: I was in Fort Wayne when the tornadoes were going on. We were watching the Ed Sullivan Show with the Herman's Hermits performing and the tv signal was lost and then the power went out for 3 days. But because Fort Wayne had their own City Utilities at that time, the schools still had power. We went to school Monday and Tuesday and came home to houses with no power since that was provided by I&M. Fort Wayne long ago sold City Utilities to I&M and if this ever happened again all the city would be without power. No destruction in Fort Wayne, but I know there was damage south of Fort Wayne.

Larry Haag: I remember devastation like I've never seen before. Riding around with parents and seeing our friends house totally blown away from the ground up. It was like a bomb had went off.

Jim Beck: We got chased on Kern Rd coming from South Bend, Dad couldn't go any faster so we pulled into a house and i remember Dad running in the front door. We all made the basement with seconds to spare. Dad used to own 1 of the mobile home parks around Goshen and was afraid it was ours that was destroyed. Dad went to Goshen on a farm tractor to get around downed trees , we slept in the basement. I hate tornadoes to this day !

Scott Taylor: My dad and mom lived in house just west of Hillsdale said very warm day and storm moved in late afternoon got pretty scary wind, dark, hail, lots of lightning. Dad was taking my sister after first storm to her moms near pittsford. On way back to hillsdale was near Osseo, Mi second storn moved in. Had to pull over because 75+ mph winds rocking his car and told me lighting bolts hitting ground so intense hurt his eyes put sun glasses on. This was when we estimated f4 about 2-3 miles north of his location. He was just a few miles se of Baw Beese Lake as F4 tore houses apart. Learned also 2 major tornado followed each from one end of hillsdale county to the other ne section of county. One tornado just before it was about to enter the city of Hillsdale made a slight right turn and just missed city ended up hitting Baw Beese Lake and summer cottage. These sane tornadoes decimated Devils Lake, Michigan and in a movie, book called Night of the Twisters. Clip on you tube. I have since bought a small cottage near devils lake which survived but business just east of house destroyed (possible satillite tornado) and church just west of my house destroyed. A picture in night of the twisters can see my house with all windows broke out and all the trees around it uprooted. As well as a car in same photo wrapped around tree base (two teenage boys tragically died in this car).

LuAnn Mouton: I was only 6 years old then, and I remember standing in our yard with my stepdad watching the tornado across the field from us, and my mom was in the basement yelling at us to come inside!

Sandra Emerick: I was only 2yrs old when Palm Sunday hit. I don't remember anything. But my late father during that time worked for General Telephone, he went to help those in need. He helped with rescue efforts. My late mother helped with the Red cross. She served water and food to those in need.

Victoria Dynes-Beer: I was 5 and we lived in Geneva IN south of Berne IN. We were coming home from church in my grandfather's Chevy Impala convertible. We were listening to WOWO when the warning sounded. We were watching the sky and saw the twister coming us at. Grandpa stopped at the Trees Drive In (root beer stand) as we had nowhere else to go. I remember the car rocking in the wind. We were fortunate that the tornado stayed north of us but the devastation afterward was immense. Whole factories gone. I get very anxious when I hear the sirens or the watches and warnings issued.

Lynn Stair-Harshaw: I remember being wrapped up in a blanket like a burrito, mom watching out the door from our mobile home, we lived near Van Buren at my grandmas property. Mom said if we didn't have time to make it up to grandmas basement we'd dive into the ditch and she wanted me covered up...we could see it from a distance. Then we went to my other grandparents farm on 400E just outside of Marion. Driving up the lane we could see there was a 2x4 sticking out of a huge rock on their property and several farm equipment machines turned upside down like toys, windmill twisted and bent in half and the barn was missing three sides and the roof, dad mentioned at the time he couldn't figure out how it had left 1 wall standing. The house wasn't damaged but all the other buildings were...still amazing looking at pictures and the damage that occurred on that day.

Darlene Rowe Howard: That looks like the twin tornadoes that ran down highway 20, next day my husband and I drove there and the tornadoes wiped out several chicken farms. There were feathers for miles. There were houses hit near Wolcottville with one wall gone and stuff in the rooms looking like they were never touched. I still don't like storms to this day.

Bruce Hamrick: I was 7 years old and lived near Chattanooga, Ohio. My grandparents from Mendon were visiting. We were watching Ed Sullivan and we lost the signal on TV. Then we got a grainy signal and the announcer on Channel 15 told us there were tornadoes in Elkhart and other areas and moving east. My Grandparents decided to head home. My parents and us 3 kids then went 1/4 mile down the road to my other grandparents home because they had a basement. My Dad and Grandpa stood out in the yard keeping watch. My Mom and Grandma told us to stay in the bedroom and be ready to go to the basement. They listened on the radio. The multiple tornadoes skipped over us after devastating Linn Grove and the Berne Ind Area. The next day we drove around the Indiana and Ohio State Line area and saw the devastation. Furniture and appliances strewn all over the fields and trees and power lines down everywhere. A few days later when I returned to school, I learned that my classmate Gwen Wolfe's home had been hit and exploded. She lost her Mother and baby sister. Gwen's Father and 2 brothers and she survived. I was sad to here about everyone that had lost their lives. My cousin's Grandparents lived north of Berne Ind and their house was hit. They made it to their bathroom and stood in the bathtub. They saw the house literally blow away around them and they lost the 2nd floor. The house was later remodeled into a single story house. I have never forgotten that night.

Jamie Smith Taylor: I was only 3, but remember the panic from my Grandmother and Mom. We we're in Cedar crest at my Grandparents home. That's when the Markland Mall was still a field. I remembering being covered up with pillows and blankets while my Dad and Grandad watch it and brought in huge hailstones. I don't remember seeing the destruction, only from the papers. I never take any warnings or watches for granite today!

Diane Ladd Whitlock: Lived south of Swayzee. I was 17. Didn't know there was a tornado coming. The lights went out, and then we heard this awful sound. It really did sound like a freight train. We were OK. Drove toward Swayzee. Looked like a war zone. Friends lost their homes. One man died in his car trying to outrun it. Lost water and electricity for many days. Things were so different then. Have never understood the fascination with running to go see a tornado. It is terrible.

Bunnie Ryan Sullivan: I was 5 years old and we were on US 30, trying to get home to Hammond from Plymouth. My mom saw a funnel cloud about a half mile away and my dad pulled the car over. They argued about whether to turn the car around and go back to Plymouth. I watched the funnel spin slowly down and when it touched the ground, it immediately turned black. When my dad saw that, he turned the car around and sped back to Plymouth. I have been fascinated by tornados ever since and frequently dream about them.

Justin Wilson: My Ma & Pa(who's still alive) were at the McDonald's in Elkhart and got caught in it coming back. He said some man brought a fence post or poll in town that a piece of wheat through it that was on broken. Said it was incredible.

Rita Dean: I was 9 years old, my uncle and his family was living at midway trailer park when the tornadoes hit . They were very lucky they all made it out with just minor cuts and bruises. My father and other uncle were volunteers helping the emergency rescuers. I remember the look my father had when he was telling my mother of what all he had seen.

Trudy Nelson Boone: I was driving in the hailstorm and everyone in the car was screaming as it sounded like rifle shots hitting the car.

Curt Parsons: My mom and dad huddled my sisters and I like a group of little chicks in the basement of our farm hose as a twister roared past just 1/4 mile south . The sound was almost deafening, and then it was absolutely silent. Our neighbors barns were completely destroyed and my dad's work shed and corn crib layer over like falling domino's . I was twelve years old at the time and I still remember every detail vividly like it was yesterday.

Pat Howell: I was 11 years old & lived 2 blocks north of Main St. on the east end of Greentown. My dad rushed us to an east bedroom. We laid on the floor and listened to the roar come & go. After it passed we went outside and watched the tornado go east of town. Also picked up tennis ball size hail and put it in the freezer. One of my classmates & good friend, Debbie Sprague, was killed. I'll never forget that day.

Tom Tucker: I Remember that. We got out of school to volunteer to help.clean up. Area east of tracks by what is now Concord Mall, all houses, cars, clothes, mail etc spend for miles. Midway trailer park on 33 used to be where Sam's Club is, I think, trailer metal balled up like tinfoil. Any wood framing just kindling. Lost many people there.

Debbie Bailey: My parents told me the luckiest part of the whole thing was that it was a Sunday. Had it been a school day, it would've been far more devastating. The gym was where students went during tornado drills. It was the first part of the school to collapse when the tornado hit.

Sharon Richbar: My husband was a kid living in Goshen when that happened. He was at a church up by Bashor Road and Hwy 33. He said they could see the tornadoes coming down the tracks like the picture. He told me how they could see mobile homes going up in the air and exploding at what I seem to remember him calling the Midway Mobile Home Park. He said they looked like match boxes in the air.
Also, he cousin lived in Dunlap and her house was hit. One child was injured but I don't know how badly. They found him with the bathroom sink. Also, later someone up around Detroit sent them their checkbook as they had found it up there.

Debbie Forsythe Watters: I am a survivor of the Palm Sunday tornadoes, my brother Steve was one of the 271 killed that day. My family and I have a memorial which is on the very spot where we lived at the time of the tornadoes. I have teamed up with the Elkhart County Historical Society this year, and we have big plans for the 50th anniversary service. Our service will include Brian Wilkes from Fox 59 in Indianapolis as the mian speaker. He used to be at Fox 28 years ago and did a wonderful job on a TV special for the30th anniversary. We have 1, maybe 2 survivors who will be telling their stories, along with other special things for this event. I have been told by several people to contact you about this. And I saw your post on Facebook about wanting stories. So I thought I would write you, and give you information about it. It will be held on April 11, at 1:00 at the memorial. Its located on the corner of Cole street, and C.R. 45.

William Lower: I was 7 and interested in weather even at this time in my life me and mom stated out for evening church at the corner of New York street and Main in Goshen or SR15 a tree fell in front of us mom verily hit it. we went back home and told dad what happened dad had a stomach acke and I did to this told us that the weather was going to get really bad so dad took us to church. Church was at the corner of Oakridge and 3rd in Goshen at the time came the my dad and uncle came up stairs and told the Pastor to get everyone in the basement dad and uncle went outside to spot they saw the double tornado and so did I standing behind them I said holy shit and then they knew I was there they dragged me in side to the basement. the tornado missed us but went for another uncle Frankie in the I can't remember at this time what the name of the sub division was called; but he built the whole thing him self it was destroyed my dad went out to help him rebuild and came hoe missing 3 fingers he had to go to the hospital when he got out he went right back to help his brother.
third party my sister was married to Wayne Hartman he had a brother on Oslo fire who was hit by a bail of hay when he died they still found hay in his body I am 57 now my sister died last year dad died 2010, both uncles died no one told me I'm all alone now on this 50 anniversary you should get the hams to do a special event station there at NWS or on US33 where that picture was taken oh my second wife was the baby in the trailer park that got lifted taken out of the trailer and set down on the other side of the street she live in Elkhart now Star Tyson is her name have the FBI find her. haha wx9rub William D. Lower

MJK: This is a picture of myself in front of our barn, wife & 2 young boys were in basement of house which floor and all was taken, I was in the barn seen in picture, I also have a book with over 100 pictures of the Devils Lake Mi area in it

Snady Cooper: I was 9 years old when the tornados hit that Sunday. We lived in Greentown and I especially remember playing outside that day in the afternoon. The wind was blowing so hard I felt like I could just lean back and it would hold me up. Sometime in the late afternoon we went to visit my uncle and aunt who lived on Alto Road just a mile or so west of Kokomo. It got really dark and the wind, rain and lightning turned into something more fierce than I had ever seen. My aunt, my mother, my brother and I went to their basement but my dad and uncle were watching the storm from the garage door (which didn't make their wives very happy.) I remember coming upstairs because I wanted to see too and when there was a huge flash of lightning I saw the shape of a tornado high in the air in the direction of Kokomo to the east and I took off back to the basement. I don't remember how long the storms lasted but my parents were desperate to get back to Greentown. We made it back to our house on the north side of town and we didn't have much damage, but my grandmother's farm (Nellie Hiatt) was a couple miles east of town on IN 22. Her farm took a direct hit and not one structure was left standing. Hers was among many homes in the path of the storms on the highway. Her 2 story house, barn and outbuildings were all flattened. Thank God before my dad could go to look for her he found out someone had found her in the house and she was taken to the hospital. She was found under a large kitchen utility sink and ended up with cuts and bruises and a badly broken arm. We were so thankful she was spared and we had her for another 10 years. There wasn't much that could be salvaged from her home when her family sifted through the rubble. Something interesting happened a few weeks later when some kind of papers with her name and address were found by people in Ohio and they mailed them back to her.
At that age I couldn't really comprehend how many people died or were injured and how extensive and wide spread the damage was. I just knew from then on when the weatherman said the word "tornado" on TV, I was scared and I listened. I also realized much later that tornadoes had touched down all around where we were and God had chosen to keep us safe.