NIPSCO says power restored to 99% of customers in Northwest Indiana more than 2 weeks after devastating storms

NIPSCO said power has been restored to 99% of customers impacted by this month's devastating storms.

At the height of the outages after storms that started on August 11, hundreds of thousands of customers across Northwest Indiana were in the dark. Some families in Gary went nearly two weeks without power.

NIPSCO estimated restoration would be completed by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, but has stressed that not every home and business will necessarily have power by then.

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said Tuesday morning that he would not consider the job finished until every customer's power was back on.

As NIPSCO closes in on full restoration, state and local leaders are turning their attention to the cleanup and what went wrong.  

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun has called for a full investigation into NIPSCO's handling of the outages. Inskeep said that the process could take anywhere from 6 months to a year, and a variety of stakeholders will be able to weigh in on that process.

Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, announced that federal disaster assistance is now available for the state of Indiana following severe storms. 

Individual assistance is now available through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security as part of the State Disaster Relief Fund. Folks impacted by this month's storms may qualify for emergency grants of up to $5,000.