Possible tornado narrowly misses home of young family near Penntown

Barn destroyed, home still standing

(PENNTOWN, Ind.) – Nick and Mariah Schwegman’s young son was hoping to ride his 4-wheeler on Friday night. 

“It was just sprinkling, but I said no, it's lightning right now,” Mariah recalled.

Less than five minutes later, the family was huddled in the basement. 

Nick and Mariah put their kids underneath the basement steps around the same time Nick’s mom called to ask if they were safe.

“I said yes, we are, but I think something is about to happen.”

Nick held his family close as he heard a big gust of wind over the house.

About ten minutes later, Nick and the family came out of the basement to took a look outside.

“The tree was on top of Mariah’s car, tin was scattered across the field, the swing set was gone and the barn had collapsed,” Nick said. 

Nick spent Saturday picking up debris from the field and from where the barn collapsed.

Somehow his home, just a few feet away from the destroyed barn, is untouched. 

“We didn’t even get a tenth of rain, but it is kind of weird the barn was destroyed, we never found the swing set yet back, there was a toybox we haven’t found either, so how did the house never get touched,” he asked.

“Yesterday, sixty percent of all this debris was in the field,” Schwegman added.

National Weather Service officials surveyed the damage in the Penntown area on Sunday afternoon. 

They also stopped by the Schwegman property and their determination on whether a tornado touched down is expected soon.