While searching through photos of the wreckage and EF4 twister itself, I found this photo"COMSTOCK PARK, Mich. (WZZM) -- April 11, 1965 is remembered as one of the worst tornado outbreaks in Michigan history. 53 people were killed and hundreds hurt when a dozen tornadoes touched down across the state, including Kent County.
Like so many early April days in West Michigan, the morning of Sunday, April 11, 1965 was cool and quiet; the morning observations taken by the Grand Rapids office of the U.S. Weather Bureau reported several hours of fog. Only the day before, a strengthening low-pressure system in the Plains was heading towards the Great Lakes region.
Early on that Palm Sunday morning, a squall line of thunderstorms was forming across Wisconsin and Iowa, ahead of a cold front. The storms began intensifying and racing eastward by the early afternoon. Back in the 1960s, severe weather bulletins were only sent to the local Weather Bureau offices and the word tornado was not used until tornadoes were actually reported. This severe weather forecast was issued 15 minutes after the first tornadoes touched down in Iowa.
The U.S. Weather Bureau in Dubuque issued the first statement confirming a tornado at 1:10 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2:10 p.m. in Grand Rapids.
In Ottawa County, a severe storm intensified as it moved towards Allendale, where an EF-4 tornado began its 35-mile path of death and destruction. It started south of Marne then inflicted heavy damage in Kent County to Alpine Township, Comstock Park, and Rockford and ended near Cedar Springs. Five people were killed and over 100 injured. One of the injured would die days later, raising the death toll to six.
Another EF-2 tornado, probably from the same storm, hit Montcalm and Gratiot Counties and heavily damaged several farms.
After the storms moved on, the Grand Rapids Weather Bureau issued a somber statement: "Many tornadoes reported. Most damage was in Comstock Park and other areas just to the northwest of Grand Rapids and at Burnips, 20 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. Present available information is that six to eight people were killed and approximately 200 hospitalized."
Can anybody find where this photo may have been taken? Would it have been somewhere along the GTW?
Also, can anyone here recall how the railroads responded to this incident?