Updated Palm Sunday tornado book released

More than 20 years after it was first released, Dan Cherry’s book on the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado has been reissued as an expanded volume.

“Night of the Wind” takes an in-depth look at the events of April 11, 1965, when two tornadoes crossed Lenawee County, killing more than a dozen people and severely damaging the Manitou Beach and Tipton communities.

The revision retains nearly all the original book’s content and includes more interviews and dozens of additional photos from Baw Beese Lake near Hillsdale to Tipton, many of which had never been published. As a result, the number of pages grew from 263 to 432.

Among the updates include a picture that surfaced in 2013 of the first tornado as it roared into Hillsdale County, maps and diagrams of the storm paths, a minute-by-minute simulation on how the Palm Sunday tornado would be handled today by first responders and weathercasters, and a page that names nearly all the victims across the Upper Midwest.

Cherry said he was able to locate and identify 263 of the 266 reported victims, some of whom were merely reported to the U.S. Weather Bureau by a number.

"The largest single list naming those lost had about 100 names," Cherry said. "It took several months to find and verify the identities of the victims included in the book, as the National Weather Service did not maintain a list by name."

Some died as a result of their injuries well into the summer of 1965, and Cherry said he believes the three he was unable to find either were not listed as tornado victims in obituaries or were perhaps from Amish communities.

Additionally, Cherry said, the book is printed in color, another improvement over the original edition, which was published in black and white due to budget restrictions.

"Night of the Wind" started in late 1999 as an archival project for the Lenawee Historical Society Museum and area libraries. After he finished the manuscript in 2002, survivors and their families asked for copies as part of their genealogy. It was then the collection of memories and pictures took on book form, and from 2004 to 2017 sold more than 3,000 copies.

When the book went out of print in 2017 following the loss of the electronic files at the printing company, Cherry said he saw that as an opportunity to update the book and include everything he had collected on the tornado since 2004.

"The COVID-19 pandemic restrictions gave me more time at home to make headway on the revision," he said.

Cherry said that while few traces of the tornado exist today, debris can still be found in area woodlands, photos of which also appear in the book.

"I was doing a senior photo session this past fall in a woods, and I started to notice rusted corrugate roofing pieces and old, broken household items," Cherry said. "I asked the senior what the items were from. He said they were from a tornado 'back around 1965.' I had never seen an area that large that had remained untouched."

Cherry spoke with the student's grandparents, who survived the tornado and verified the items were from Palm Sunday. He then took a few minutes to photograph the debris before resuming the picture session.

"It was a mix of emotions," Cherry said. "As a historian and preservationalist, I had a jolt of adrenaline to see that time capsule, but at the same time, it was sad to know these items were once part of peoples' lives."

Cleanup efforts at the time focused on home properties and fields so farmers could get back to work by summer.

"Woodscapes were mostly untouched because they were not essential to daily living," he said.

Cherry said interest in nearly all of his book projects have come and gone, but "Night of the Wind" remains a sought-after book and presentation request for nearly 25 years.

"I believe it’s a combination of being a significant historical event most residents over 62, 63 years old remember, and that it was not openly talked about for many years,” Cherry said. "Many people shared memories they rarely spoke of, and for some they found emotional healing in talking about the trauma they endured."

A book signing and sale will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, March 11, at the Hudson Carnegie District Library, 205 S. Market St. in Hudson. Other book signings and presentations are being planned. Information about the project and how to order a copy may be found on the 1965 Palm Sunday Tornado Michigan Facebook page.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Updated Palm Sunday tornado book released