DAYTON — Today marks the 61st anniversary of a tornado outbreak some may never forget. On April 11, 1965, six states endured destruction from nearly four dozen tornadoes. Over 270 people were killed and this is just one of the historic outbreaks on record during the month of April.
Here in the Miami Valley, we had four tornadoes rip through our area. They impacted Mercer, Shelby, Preble, and Greene Counties. Most of the damage was in rural areas, but for those who lived through it they experienced some intense damage. It should be noted these tornadoes occurred when the old Fujita Scale was being used.
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The weakest tornadoes were in Preble and Greene Counties. The communities of Eaton and Cedarville had tornadoes rip through after 11:00 PM, but they were not on the ground for very long. Record keeping does not show the precise intensity of these tornadoes, but they were both rated as F1 tornadoes.
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The strongest tornadoes took place in the northern Miami Valley. Northern Mercer County was in the middle of the path of a tornado that started in Indiana and was on the ground for over 50 miles. It was rated as an F4 tornado that took place before 9:30 PM. There were two fatalities in Van Wert County, Ohio from this tornado.
Locally, a picture above shows what happened in Shelby County. A 20-mile long damage path from a F4 tornado carved a path through a good portion of farm land in Shelby County from west to east. The twister narrowly missed cities like Fort Loramie and Anna.
This tornado in Shelby County was responsible for 3 fatalities and a rather interesting damage report. Along a 68-car train, over 50 freight cars were ripped off, according to the National Weather Service.