The National Weather Service in Northern Indiana confirmed Monday afternoon that an EF1 tornado struck far western Marshall County late Sunday afternoon.
At approximately 4:22 PM on Sunday, March 30, a small tornado touched down in Starke County and quickly intensified to EF1 as it raced northeastward. The tornado caused extensive tree damage and generally minor structural damage across the Ancilla College campus and Gilbert Lake.
The tornado continued northeastward and damaged several homes near Union and 9th Roads. A mobile home was torn from its anchored undercarriage and overturned, injuring one inside. Two barns just northeast of the college were also flattened.
The tornado lifted at 4:28 PM near Tulip Road north of 9th Road. The length of the tornado’s path was 3.3 miles with a maximum width of 750 yards. Estimated peak winds were 110 mph.
Marshall County Emergency Management Agency Director Jack Garner said, “This information is preliminary and subject to change pending final review of the event.”
While all of Marshall County experienced severe wind speeds on Sunday, this area was the only place where damage appeared to be caused by a tornado and not straight-line winds.
The damage survey was a joint effort by the National Weather Service and the Marshall County Emergency Management Agency.
A map of the tornado’s track is highlighted in green below.
Strong winds ripped through Marshall County, leaving behind uprooted trees, trees into garages and homes, shingles blown off roofs, and downed power lines.
Marshall County REMC still has customers without power. After Sunday’s storm, they had at least 20 broken poles that needed to be replaced. Once replaced REMC linemen and visiting crews began the process of restoring power. They still do not have restoration time estimates they can share because of the extensive damage.
NIPSCO also had 14,000 customers still without power Monday evening, down from the nearly 40,000 impacted by Sunday afternoon’s storm. Based on current information at this time and due to the extent of the damage which includes more than 110 broken poles along with downed power lines and trees, NIPSCO anticipates most customers being restored by midnight Wednesday, April 2, or sooner.
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