TL;DR: Northwest Indiana faced a second week without power for tens of thousands of households after deadly mid-August storms, with full restoration in Gary not expected until Aug. 25.

Historic Storm Leaves 300,000 Initially in the Dark

More than a week after deadly storms leveled trees and knocked down power lines across the region, tens of thousands of people in northwest Indiana remained without power Wednesday, according to NBC News, reporting The Associated Press.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said crews were working nonstop to fix the outages, according to that same report.

The event was described by Melody Birmingham, an executive at NIPSCO's parent company, as a historic storm that initially left 300,000 customers in the dark.

Birmingham acknowledged the real burden of losing perishable food and people living for days without air conditioning after the outage began.

WSBT described the event as one of the largest power outages ever in company history in northwest Indiana.

NIPSCO was restoring power to more people almost by the hour from last week's storms, according to WSBT.

How Many Homes Remained Out on Aug. 19-20

By late Wednesday afternoon, 75,000 customers still lacked electricity, mostly in Lake County next to the Illinois border, according to NBC News.

They included more than 20,000 customers in Gary, where residents lined up again at community centers for hot meals and a place to charge phones.

By Thursday, Aug. 20, more than 48,000 customers remained without power, according to WSBT, reporting at 3:45 p.m.

Most of the customers still out Thursday were in Porter and Lake counties, that report stated.

The change from 75,000 late Wednesday to more than 48,000 Thursday reflected continued reconnections almost by the hour.

Statewide, the storms began Aug. 11, according to Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security, as quoted in the NBC News report.

Why Gary Faces the Longest Wait Until Aug. 25

Full restoration is not expected in Gary until Aug. 25, NIPSCO said, according to NBC News.

Roughly 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles need to be repaired or replaced in Gary as a result of the storm, which carried winds of 99 mph, said Melody Birmingham.

Birmingham said at a news conference that the work involved rebuilding systems, not routine fixes.

“These aren’t simple repairs,” Birmingham said. “These are systems that are being rebuilt.”

NIPSCO is replacing thousands of poles and more than 2-million feet of wire that was damaged across its service area, according to WSBT.

Birmingham explained the sequencing challenge in a statement carried by WSBT.

“You need to understand what damage has occurred so we can ensure we have the right equipment, the right labor, and we have the right material to restore as well as access to get to those locations,” said Melody Birmingham, Exec. VP and Group President, Utilities at NiSource Inc.

NIPSCO and other power officials were trying to reassure customers that they were doing everything they could to get power back on, according to WSBT.

They do not expect everyone's power to be back on until the middle of next week, that report stated.

Crews Brought In From Across the Midwest

More than 600 linemen were working to restore power in Gary, according to Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, as quoted by NBC News.

Melton acknowledged that locals were frustrated and exhausted.

“I want to reiterate this is clearly not just a Gary situation. It is a northwest Indiana situation,” Melton said.

NIPSCO brought in help from across the Midwest to help with restoration, according to WSBT.

Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said crews were working nonstop, according to NBC News.

The combination of local crews and outside assistance reflected the scale of pole and transmission damage in Lake County and surrounding areas.

Residents lining up at community centers in Gary for hot meals and phone charging showed how restoration work and community support operated in parallel during the extended outage.

What Extended Outages Meant Inside Households

Jeremy Spurrier, 51, said he was fortunate to have a generator at his Portage home, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, according to NBC News.

The generator goes through about $75 of gas a day, Spurrier said.

Spurrier said his family was relying on nonperishable food like soup.

He drives to Illinois to get ice to chill his insulin.

“If I run out of ice, that’s several hundred dollars of insulin just ruined,” he said.

Birmingham acknowledged the burden of losing perishable food and living for days without air conditioning.

In Whiting, Myra Carden, 74, said her home was not damaged by the storm, according to the same report.

Carden said not even a chair was blown over in her yard.

She was in her second blackout Wednesday.

Carden, her son and three dogs lost power for more than two days last week, then the electricity went out again Tuesday.

“More than once I have put in an outage report,” she said. “All I get back is, ‘You already put in a report.’ Well, what do you want me to do? ... This doesn’t make sense. Of course I’m not a lineman; I’m a paralegal.”

Carden uses a generator to keep the refrigerator humming but only when someone is home to monitor it.

She said a deep freeze in the garage packed full with beef and chicken would likely be thrown away.

Deaths Reported Since Aug. 11

A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security, according to NBC News.

The report did not attribute specific causes to individual deaths in the material available for this archive.

The deaths occurred against a backdrop of leveled trees, downed power lines and repeated heavy rain in parts of Indiana.

Flooding after another round of heavy rain in Noblesville on Saturday was documented in images accompanying the report.

Questions Over Equity in Restoration

Gary, a majority-Black city, was especially hard hit, with some residents voicing frustration that they were being ignored, according to NBC News.

Birmingham denied that low-income residents were being overlooked and blamed posts on social media.

“We have areas that are probably affluent where we still have customers out as well. ... This has nothing to do with race or any type of division,” said Birmingham, who is Black. “It’s really a matter of where the storm hit.”

Mayor Melton said more than 600 linemen were working in the city while acknowledging frustration and exhaustion.

Melton framed the outage as a northwest Indiana situation, not only a Gary situation.

Most remaining outages late Wednesday were concentrated in Lake County next to the Illinois border, which includes Gary.

By Thursday, the remaining concentration was in Porter and Lake counties, according to WSBT.

What Households Can Do While Rebuild Continues

Residents in Gary lined up again at community centers for hot meals and a place to charge phones, according to NBC News.

Households with generators continued to balance refrigeration, fuel cost and supervision, as shown by the experiences in Portage and Whiting.

Spurrier's household relied on nonperishable food like soup while managing generator fuel use and ice for temperature-sensitive medication.

Carden kept a refrigerator running on a generator only when someone was home to monitor it.

Reporting an outage more than once did not change the automated response Carden received, according to her account.

NIPSCO said full restoration in Gary would wait until Aug. 25, while system-wide restoration was expected by the middle of next week, giving households a planning window for food, charging and cooling needs.

Sources referenced