Gary Power Outage Leaves Thousands Waiting After Northwest Indiana Storms

Residents seek cooling, food and phone charging as restoration continues

GARY, Indiana — Thousands of residents in Gary were still waiting for electricity to return Saturday, nearly two weeks after severe storms beginning Aug. 11 battered northwest Indiana with record rainfall, widespread flooding and destructive winds that knocked out power across much of the city.

Just over 30,100 customers of the Northern Indiana Public Service Company, or NIPSCO, remained without service as of Saturday. At the peak of the emergency, 374,500 NIPSCO customers were without electricity, according to figures reported by CBS News.

The prolonged Gary power outage has been especially difficult for households coping with summer heat, limited communications and medical needs. Shatiya Hardin, a Gary resident, said the outage had left families struggling overnight and worried about vulnerable neighbors who depend on electricity for medical equipment.

“It’s been absolutely horrible,” Hardin told CBS News, describing hot nights, children in need of care and elderly residents who rely on oxygen tanks. She said streets and roads in parts of the city have been almost completely dark after sunset, apart from passing vehicle lights.

Storm damage compounds hardships in Gary

The storm system killed at least seven people statewide and displaced roughly 1,000 others, while torrential rain flooded multiple communities in northwest Indiana. In Gary, more than half of residents reportedly lost power after the storms, placing added pressure on a city where about one in three residents lives in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.

For residents without power, a community center has become an important stop for hot meals, air conditioning and charging phones. The need for such assistance has highlighted how an extended utility failure can quickly become a public-health and safety concern, particularly for households without backup generators, transportation or access to cooling.

Cleanup crews have continued removing storm-felled trees, including from residential properties in Gary. Downed trees and vegetation have also become central to a newly filed class-action lawsuit against NIPSCO.

Lawsuit challenges utility’s vegetation management

The lawsuit alleges NIPSCO failed to adequately trim vegetation near power lines before the storms and contends that fallen trees and overgrown vegetation were major drivers of the widespread outages. NIPSCO has rejected that characterization, saying its spending on vegetation management has more than doubled since 2016.

“We strongly disagree with the characterization of NIPSCO’s vegetation management practices,” the utility said in a statement provided to CBS News Chicago.

Gary Mayor Eddie Milton said city officials would review emergency-management operations following the disaster. He also called for greater accountability from the utility as recovery continues.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun on Thursday requested an expedited major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency covering 54 counties. Braun estimated that losses from the storms and their aftermath could exceed $5 billion, and said federal approval would bring additional resources to speed the state’s recovery.

Power restoration and storm cleanup were continuing Saturday, while the lawsuit, the state’s disaster request and local reviews of the response remained unresolved.