Farm near Eyota deals with severe storm damage

ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – Severe weather ripped through a farm southeast of Rochester Wednesday night. No word as of Thursday night if it was a tornado or straight-line wind.

“I said, I wonder if the barn is still up,” Jeff Sobczak said about his father-in-law’s farm. His father-in-law Brent Nigon told him the barn did not survive the storm.

Cleanup is underway while snow sits in the distance, a very uncommon thing in Minnesota.

Brent Nigon’s farm was established in 1954, and he has lived there most of his life. He recalls when the storm hit Wednesday night.

“We heard some racket outside at about 8:30, looked outside, heard it was getting bad, so we went down in the basement,” he said.

He said it sounded like a train, and when he emerged from the basement, the barn was gone.

Nigon has family and friends helping him clean up. They say they hope to salvage as much as they can. The barn didn’t contain any animals or heavy equipment. Nigon says it held woodworking supplies and hay.

Thankfully no one was hurt.

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