Night of the Wind

Night of the Wind, by Dan Cherry

This book is about a life-altering tornado that occurred in southern Michigan on Palm Sunday, 1965. It is a sort of narrative reconstruction based on interviews with the eyewitnesses to the damage, the victims, and their families.

"A tornado?" you might ask. "The United States gets hundreds of them a year. It couldn't have been that bad." Try saying that to someone who was there.

At first glance, this book simply tells a story, in time increments, about a tragedy. But looking back on my reading, I discovered that the author skillfully worked in little memorable details that taught the reader something of the history and culture of the area while telling the story.

For example, instead of stating "In 1965, tornado and storm were monitored by radar storm watchers in Detroit, who then relayed information to the news stations (a long process)," the author worked the details into the story. So at 7:00 PM, which is the first chapter, the author describes the evening activities for many of the characters involved. At 7:03 PM a tornado was reported locally in southern Michigan, but as it moved north, no other counties were alerted. Giving the readers the knowledge of the tornado, while the characters involved had no knowledge of the coming disaster heightens suspense, while also subtly emphasizing in the story that the communication about the weather which is so important today, was almost non-existent back then.

Having read the book, I feel a greater sense of connection with the people in the communities of Manitou Beach, Adrian, Addison, Devil's Lake, Onsted, and others in the Lenawee County area. I feel that if I were to visit the area today, I would feel a sense of familiarity despite the fact that the damage I saw in the pictures no longer is visible today.

The sense of danger the book instilled was also profound. It was not profound in the sense of instilling an unhealthy fear of storms, but it was just enough to make a person take time out of their day to remember the deaths of those involved when the sky takes on a funny color. In fact, I found myself on Palm Sunday of this year, without even realizing it, searching the sky and thinking about the tornado of 43 years ago, despite living in the foothills of the Appalachians, where in my lifetime (24 years), we have had two tornadoes that were barely large enough to take shingles off the roofs. For this reason, I felt that the book was a wonderful tribute to the memory of those who lost their lives on that night.

I would highly recommend this book to history buffs, storm watchers, and those who live in the affected area. However, it has recently gone out of print. HAHA sucks to be you... no seriously, if you want to read it, contact me because I know the author and if I present him with enough names I might be able to petition for it to go back into print. (He's gonna read this and now he's probably rolling his eyes at me...) OK thats all, final verdict: its a great book, a suspenseful read, and how history books OUGHT to be written!