An excellent article Monday in The Lima News on the April 11, 1965, Palm Sunday tornado. I remember that day well.
I was single and lived in Delphos. It was a very warm sunny spring day (mid-80s) with small clouds scooting across sky. Some friends and I played some pickup ball at Middlepoint park. Afterwards, we went to a bar next to railroad. I went up to the bar to get a beer and an “old” (to us) guy was at the bar and said to watch the weather that evening because there would be tornadoes.
I scoffed.
He said he formerly lived in Kansas, and this was the kind of weather that preceded tornadoes. That evening three of us went to the Delphos bowling alley with our girlfriends. While there, the power went out, so we piled into one guy’s 1959 Pontiac and took a ride around to see what’s happening. At one point we drove north on the road connecting Elida Road and Fifth Street (Route 30 at that time). I recall seeing lightning to the north stronger than I had ever seen — straight solid wide bars.
The next day I drove State Road to work on Lima’s east side and saw home after home gone on State Road, only foundations left. The tornado had jumped back and forth across State Road. It then went through some trees and toppled a power transmission tower.
I recall that some lives were lost along that road, but not how many. What a mess.
James Powell
Lima
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