Night of the Wind
The Palm Sunday Tornado of April 11, 1965
There are two eras in southern Michigan history:
Before April 11, 1965, and after...
Update March 2023: A revised and expanded edition of Night of the Wind has been released. Click my Facebook link at the bottom of the page for updates.
Night of the Wind
Expanded edition
In 2017, the printer files to the 2004 edition of Night of the Wind were lost. I saw it as an opportunity to take all that I had collected or archived over the years to create a more expansive volume on the Palm Sunday tornado. In 2022, I finished the book, which increased in size from 263 to 432 pages, and includes dozens more interviews and photographs. The book's color photographs are reproduced as such, adding a storytelling element to what survivors and eyewitnesses experienced.
Previous books I wrote on the tornado
I have written two books dedicated to the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado as it affected Lenawee County, particularly the densly-populated area at Manitou Beach and Devils Lake.
Night of the Wind was researched and compiled between 1999 and 2002 and published in 2004, while Fifty Years Later was composed from December 2013 to September 2014 and published in December 2014.
Night of the Wind was updated and expanded between 2017 and 2022, emerging as a 432-page book in color March 1, 2023.
Night of the Wind
"Night of the Wind" was a 263-page book that takes a comprehensive look at the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado as it affected Lenawee County, primarily the densely-populated Manitou Beach area. More than 125 eyewitnesses and survivors were interviewed between 2000 and 2002 ahead of the 2004 publication of the book. Following its seventh reprint, the book that examines the event minute-by-minute through the eyes of the survivors has sold some-3,000 copies and is now sold out/discontinued.
Due to a limited budget at the time of its printing, all of the some-300 images were reproduced in black and white.
Fifty Years Later...
"Fifty Years Later" takes a new look at the 1965 Palm Sunday tornado damage in Lenawee County through all-color images. Color photograph had caught up with black and white photography by the mid-1960s, and many Kodachromes and Polaroid photographs exist of the post-tornado scenery in Lenawee County. Many of the images in the 160-page book depict the populated Manitou Beach area and are placed side-by-side with modern-day photographs to compare what once was with how the same scene appears today.
Fifty Years Later is no longer available for sale.