The Night The Sirens Blew: A historical account of the May 6, 1965 Twin Cities Tornado

by Allen W. Taylor

In this second edition, educator and author Allen W. Taylor presents an exhaustive and most comprehensive book written about the worst tornado outbreak ever to strike Minnesota. This book focuses on the two elements of informative, sometimes shocking accounts of the people who experienced and lived through those tornadoes and factual documented information from a meteorological view. The result is a fantastic, interesting read that will promote the reader to respect the incredible power of nature's most violent storm and heed the future warnings of these outbreaks.

Genres: History

216 pages, Paperback

First published December 31, 2008

Reviews

[Bonie Schrupp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Having been 13 yrs old when I lived through one of the May 6th tornados, reading these accounts reminded me of the similarities of each experience. However, while the sounds, sight and fear of the tornado may fade with time, memories still quickly bring tears.

[Dee Eisel · Rating 4 out of 5]

My love for Big Weather leads me to this book, a series of first-person retellings of the 1965 May tornado outbreak. The title is misleading: There were several tornadoes that night, and they were devastating in what they did to the neighborhoods north of Minneapolis.

In spite of the horror and destruction (there were multiple deaths, and the names of the deceased are listed at the back of the book along with their addresses and ages), one of the points that stood out to me was the very Minnesota-ness of the stories. The people affected by the storm were practical people, telling their stories in quick, no-nonsense ways. The majority of them talk about the rebuilding for at least a quarter of the story. The attitude is very much that the events are history, so don't dwell on them overmuch.

I appreciated this book more than I had my first reading five years ago. I'm a lot more familiar with the areas described, and I had a clear mental image of the tracks of the storms. When someone mentioned Central Avenue, I knew where that was because I rode the bus on that road every day on my way to and from a former job. Minnetonka and Fridley are known quantities, although they were much smaller at the time of the tornadoes. And the tornado a few years back in North Minneapolis made the description of the destruction that much clearer.

Kicking off the book with the local newscasters was a nice touch, by the way. Four stars.

[Jill Crosby · Rating 1 out of 5]

Possibly the worst book on storms/local history I've ever read. A compilation of "personal stories," it's clear that the author simply interviewed a bunch of tornado survivors, then transcribed their interviews via his own words. I cannot count how many recollections included "the sky was a strange green color," or "the hail was the size of baseballs." No insight. No personal revelation. And, (as almost 25% of the punctuation in this book was the exclamation point) we learned that nearly every interviewee concluded his statement with "it was an incredible night I will never forget!"