BOURBON - An EF-1 tornado hit the town of Bourbon in Marshall County Wednesday night, the National Weather Service confirmed Thursday afternoon.
It reached speeds of 105 mph. Its path was 17.91 miles long and 175 yards wide. No deaths or injuries were reported.
Surveying the damage in Bourbon Thursday morning from Wednesday night’s storm event, one could find roofs and siding destroyed or missing from homes, power line poles snapped like twigs and even an unidentified bolt embedded into the side of a truck.

    An unidentified bolt was embedded into a truck from Wednesday night’s storm at the home of Lindsey McIntyre, 708 Crocus Court, Bourbon. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

While the National Weather Service was surveying the damage Thursday to put their assessment together, at least one resident said she saw a tornado and another was sure the evidence pointed to a tornado being involved.
Marc Gould, 707 Crocus Court, said he and his family heard the tornado sirens go off Wednesday night and they went into the basement.
“It just came very suddenly. A very, very strong wind, and then I just heard the roof of the garage come off. Just loud cracking noises. And you could hear things blowing away from the house. Just as fast as it came, it was gone,” he recalled.
By the time they went back upstairs, it was dark.
While Triton School Corporation was offering shelter for anyone who needed it at the high school, Gould said they stayed at some friends’ home in the neighborhood. As soon as the sun rose Thursday, they returned home to check things out.
Unfortunately, because some of the roof got torn off, the rain came in and took the drywall down. A couple rooms in the home are opened to the environment. Two of their cars are in the garage, but Gould said they didn’t know how to get them out because of the trusses on top of them and the garage door is wedged. He was sure the vehicles probably had damage to them, too. The kids’ bedroom also was covered in drywall and roofing material.
The vehicle in the driveway had its windows blown out and then it rained inside the vehicle. He was using the vehicle to charge the sump pump for the basement.
“We don’t have any vehicles we can really drive,” he said.
Gould said he had already contacted his insurance company about the damage to get the ball rolling.
“Our biggest priority now is hopefully getting the roof tarped because we’re supposed to have rain in the next three to four days and that’s just going to make it (worse). It could just destroy our house,” he stated.
His family has a place to stay for the time being.
Lindsey McIntyre, 708 Crocus Court, said they heard the tornado sirens going off. She was upstairs, while her husband and son were downstairs.
“The tornado sirens were going off, but on TV it looked like the tornado was heading north. It didn’t look like it was going to hit Bourbon. So I stayed upstairs working. Lightning was getting bad. The tornado sirens went down, and then all of a sudden I got an alert on my watch from - I’m assuming the National Weather Service - and it said a tornado was expected to hit at 8:06 (p.m.), so we went down into the basement,” she recalled.
They could hear it and feel it.

    Marc Gould’s home at 707 Crocus Court, Bourbon, had large parts of its roof torn off, then rain got into the home causing more damage. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

"We have a window out the back, and so the tornado was actually coming from that way and we could see it like off in the distance a little bit,” she said, confirming that they saw a tornado. “We all went down into the basement, obviously, and you could feel the pressure.”
As quickly as it started, it was over. They came up from the basement and started assessing the damage.
They have a hole in the roof, which let some of the rain leak into the house. They lost some of the siding to the house, too.
“We came out and immediately realized the three houses (near us) were pretty destroyed,” she stated.
They immediately started calling their neighbors to make sure they were OK. Her son and husband were able to help the Millers out of their basement window at 711 Crocus Court.
“It seemed to come out of nowhere,” McIntyre said.
It was her family’s truck that got a large bolt embedded in its side. McIntyre said she doesn’t know where the bolt came from.
Chris Hammer, meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said the NWS still had multiple teams around the area as of about noon Thursday.
He said there was a line of storms that moved through the area Wednesday night, with multiple reports of very strong winds and some tornados as well.
“However, we are working to confirm where we did in fact have tornados and where it was straight line winds,” Hammer said. “That’s what the survey teams are out trying to figure out right now.”
He said the survey teams will be taking into account photos, videos, eyewitness accounts and the damage that was caused to determine what caused that damage, whether it was straight line winds or a tornado.
While he didn’t have any numbers available as to how many severe storms there have been so far in 2025, Hammer did say, “It has been an extremely active early start to our severe weather season. It’s not really all that unusual to get significant to severe weather. It’s starting to get into the prime time for some of these early season severe weather events. It’s not all that uncommon, but we do start to see our peak for severe weather more so into May and June, but late March and April, it’s not all that unusual to see storms like this.”
Looking ahead, he said there may be some occasional chances for some stronger storms, but in the very near term they’re not looking for any significant outbreaks like Wednesday. As for precipitation for the year, he said the area is about an inch above average.

    The kids’ bedroom in Marc Gould’s home at 707 Crocus Court, Bourbon, was one of the rooms that sustained damage from Wednesday night’s storm. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

Ryan Miller, with PWI out of Nappanee, brought a crew of about 15 volunteers with him Thursday to help residents of Bourbon as a lot of their friends and family live in the town.
“Our team is family, and when we have family, friends struggling,” he said, they are there to help.
One of PWI’s truck drivers lives in Bourbon, and one of PWI’s welders has a dad that lives in Bourbon.
“We saw what was going on last night. I put a post on our all-company group chat, and we decided we’re going to come down and help this morning,” Miller said.
Marcia Keyser, 204 Rose Lane, said Wednesday night she saw the rain going straight but also sort of wavy.
“It was strange. And then there was a big noise, and we went to shelter,” she said.
The noise sounded like a “huge boom,” Keyser recalled. “When we came out - the electricity went off, of course, before that - but you could there were things laying all over the place.”
Damage to her house included the screens on the deck being off, shingles missing from the roof and some siding missing.

    A power line pole near the intersection of Rose Lane and East Center Street in Bourbon was snapped in pieces during Wednesday night’s storm. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union
  

“We were very lucky,” she said, compared to some of her neighbors.
Marshall County Sheriff’s Department responded around 8 p.m. Wednesday to three semis being blown over. The incident occurred on U.S. 30 near Cedar Road. Two people were transported by ambulance to local hospitals.
Kosciusko County Central Dispatch reported the road closure of Ind. 19, south of CR 650N, Etna Green, late Wednesday night. The road will be barricaded off for the next few days because NIPSCO power towers fell across Ind. 19.
Indiana Gov. Mike Braun activated the Indiana National Guard Thursday to aid with storm recovery after severe weather impacted at least 41 counties across Indiana. Damage assessments and recovery operations are ongoing, according to a press release from his office.
“Hoosier Guardsmen always answer the call to serve our state and our nation,” said Braun. “In times like these, I’m immensely grateful for the soldiers who are on the ground ensuring Hoosier safety.”
The Hoosier Guardsmen from units based in Jasper, Vincennes and Seymour will assist with Operation Sandcastle. Units in Bedford, Terre Haute, Indianapolis and Chandler remain ready to activate if called upon.
The governor's office is working with the Indiana National Guard, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, Indiana Department of Transportation, Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Indiana Department of Corrections to begin sand bagging operations in support of flood prevention of critical infrastructure and damage to civilian property.
There are approximately 50 soldiers supporting this mission, the release states.

    Volunteers from PWI, Nappanee, help a Bourbon resident clean up their property Thursday after Wednesday night’s storm. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union