Gary residents still in the dark as power outage could drag for 2 weeks after last week’s deadly storms

Thousands of Gary residents could go two weeks without power after last week’s deadly storms caused outages across Indiana.

The state’s utility company NIPSCO reported that over 60% of its customers — roughly 370,000 homes — lost power during the Aug. 11 storm and subsequent days of severe weather.

And while many customers across the state have their lights back on, about 22,000 customers in Gary were still without power, local and state officials told reporters Wednesday afternoon.

Power likely won’t be completely restored to the city until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday — two weeks after the Aug. 11 storm, said Melody Birmingham, the group utilities president at NiSource, NIPSCO’s parent company.

Gary also has the largest number of customers in the state waiting for power to return, Birmingham said during Wednesday’s press conference. Part of why it’s taking longer to restore power is the city suffered the most “extensive and complex damage” from the storm, mainly because of the 99 mph winds that tore through Northwest Indiana and knocked down several large trees, she said.

“Those winds were as strong as a Category 2 hurricane,” Birmingham said.

She was joined by Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, who said he understands how frustrating and difficult the outages have been for residents.

“You have been patient, you have been been understanding and you’ve been frustrated with the delays, just like me and my family,” Melton said. “Progress is being made, power is actively being turned on. But many residents are still suffering without power.”

Birmingham said crews of linemen were not only repairing downed power lines, in some places they’re rebuilding electrical systems that were destroyed in some places.

That includes 335 damaged poles that need to be repaired or replaced and 27 outages at substations that need to be fixed before power can be restored, she said.

Birmingham acknowledged that residents need better communication and updates from NIPSCO. The utility put out a list earlier this week with estimated restoration dates for cities across the state, but Gary was left out. That caused a lot of confusion and anger for residents, Melton said.

Residents also told the Sun-Times on Monday that they hadn’t heard any updates from NIPSCO on when their power would be back.

But Birmingham pushed back on the criticism that Gary is low on NIPSCO’s priority list.

“This is not about a socioeconomic divide, this is truly because of the area the storm hit,” she said. “We have not and should not ever prioritize who we serve based on color, based on socioeconomic status. That is not the business we are in.”