WTHR Staff
Indiana, April 10 - The numbers alone boggle the mind; six states effected, 37 tornadoes, 258 people killed and more than 3,000 injured. It happened 40 years ago on a Palm Sunday.
The conditions that would lead to the second worse tornado outbreak since modern record keeping began (in 1953) started to come together as people attended Palm Sunday services that morning. Thunderstorms had developed over northern Missouri and central Illinois with tornado touchdowns reported in Iowa.
The first Indiana storms hit at 5:45 p.m. when six tornadoes struck in the far northern part of the state. Three were killed near Koontz Lake, 100 cottages were destroyed. A 250 pound man was thrown 200 yards to his death.
Next came the Midway tornado. It touched down at 6:15 p.m. southwest of Wakarusa where a child was killed. It ripped the wing from an airplane in Goshen and deposited it 35 miles away near Centerville, Michigan. The Midway tornado was on the ground for 22 miles.
The Wanatah tornado touched down at 6:25 p.m. south of Valparaiso spreading destruction over 15 miles.
Then, at 6:40 p.m., came the Rainbow Lake tornado. It brushed the ground seven miles southeast of Goshen. It killed 17 and lifted off the ground 23 miles after it first touched down.
At 7 p.m.another twister struck, this time in Steuben County.
The final storm in north Indiana hit at 7:10 p.m.. It stayed on the ground for 35 miles and killed 28 people in and around Dunlap.
Central Indiana was next. At 7:10 p.m. a tornado struck south east of Lafayette and leveled several homes between Mulberry and Moran. It was on the ground for 22 miles.
Next came the Lebanon tornado. This one cut a swath a mile wide after it touched down at 7:20 p.m. southeast of Crawfordsville. It killed 11 people north of Lebanon, four on the road to Sheridan, and ten more in Sheridan. It returned to the sky south of Arcadia.
Then came the Russiaville tornado. It touched down outside of Russiaville at 7:25 p.m. It grew to a mile in width. And it destroyed 90 percent of the town. It then headed toward the south side of Kokomo It obliterated Alto, destroyed 80 homes in Greentown, ripped into Swayzee and then just south of Marion. This tornado was on the ground for 47 miles. It hurt 835 people and it left 25 dead making it the most deadly of the Palm Sunday storms.
The final storm in the outbreak struck at 8:20 p.m. outside of Roll. It destroyed homes in Keystone and Linn Grove before passing into Ohio. It was on the ground for 55 miles.
It was all over in less than three hours. The totals for Indiana, hardest hit by the outbreak, marked the worst in the state's history. Ten tornadoes struck 20 counties. They killed 137 and injured nearly 1,800 others. One thousand farm buildings and more than 1,200 homes were severely damaged or destroyed. The damage estimate was $145 million. In 2005 dollars that's nearly $878 million.
