1965 : Palm Sunday Tornados Kill 53 in Michigan

When:
April 11, 2018 all-day
2018-04-11T00:00:00-04:00
2018-04-12T00:00:00-04:00

The tornado outbreak on Palm Sunday 1965 was the deadliest in Michigan’s recorded history.

The series of storms April 11 killed 53 people and injured at least 100 more, according to the National Weather Service.

Twelve tornadoes were reported that day, including two F4s that followed almost the exact same path eastward through Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and Monroe counties. The first one hit at 7p.m., the second 40 minutes later.

Spinning columns of air devastated parts of the Midwest that day, including Indiana and Ohio. In 12 hours, 47 tornadoes killed 271 people, injured approximately 3,400 others and caused more than $200 million in damage ($1.4 billion in today’s dollars).

The violent weather ripped the roof off a fire station in Unionville in Tuscola County; killed most of the 20,000 scattered chickens at a farm in Burnips in Allegan County; knocked down 72 telephone poles between Grand Rapids and Big Rapids; ripped the chimney off Milan Junior High School and destroyed the roof, and made six new homes in the Westgate subdivision north of Grand Rapids vanish.

Sources :

This Week in Michigan History, Detroit Free Press, April 8, 2012.

Andrew Krietz, “Deadly Palm Sunday tornado survivors recall ‘end of the world’ 50 years later”, MLive, April 12, 2015.

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