Some NIPSCO customers in northwest Indiana frustrated after nearly week without power

Nearly a week after severe storms hit northwest Indiana, thousands remain without power and the frustration is growing in some areas.

As of 4 p.m. Monday, NIPSCO, in an update, reported that 102,000 customers remain without power.

On some streets in Dyer, power lines remain down and some power poles are left leaning. Generators are running on nearly every block.

Some residents say they haven't seen any NIPSCO crews and they're hoping that changes soon.

"This is bad because of all the poles that are down, down the line. And what, this happened last Tuesday? And we still haven't seen a NIPSCO truck," said Nancy Hussey.

She has been without power for six days.

"It's just sad because it feels like we're in this 'I don't like you people' area. Yeah, because we're in the lower-income section of the town of Dyer," she said.

Dyer town officials are upset as well.

"Very, very slow to start and I think that's what reached the boiling point for our elected officials that we definitely should of had more communication from NIPSCO. We basically got the same information we could have gotten going to a website," said town manager David Hein.

Hein says the estimated population in Dyer is more than 16,000, with more than 6,400 being households. He says that half of the town is still without power.

He says he's concerned about his residents and the town's infrastructure, like its wastewater treatment plant, which has been running on a generator for 24 hours since the power outage.

"Right now, we're running complete to capacity because our backup generator is sufficient to run the treatment plant behind us," he said. "The next several plans don't allow us to run at full capacity, which is what we're really concerned about. So we're really hoping to work with NIPSCO to get some kind of relief to our power situation here."

NIPSCO says they have four outages in Dyer that they have to repair first and expect full restoration by the end of Wednesday.

"Just communicate better with the residents around here. We have a lot of residents in this area and we all pay a lot of money for NIPSCO," Hussey said.

NIPSCO did respond in a statement, saying crews have been working around the clock to restore service. 

The company said in part, "We understand the frustration of customers who have been without power for an extended period of time. We share that frustration and are committed to restoring every customer as quickly as possible. However, restoration is dictated by the severity and extent of the damage. In some areas, repairs to major transmission and distribution infrastructure must be completed before work can begin on smaller sections of the system serving individual neighborhoods. Every community matters to us, and restoration priorities are based on system needs, safety considerations and the work required to restore service to the greatest number of customers as efficiently as possible."

NIPSCO president answers when Gary residents can expect power

Over in Gary, residents attended an event held by NIPSCO, where they received hot food and cold water, but still want answers as to when they can expect power to be restored.

Jeffrey Allen, who's been a resident since 1964, can list all the intersections near his Gary home with power, but many are still waiting.

"I'm hoping before the sun goes down, but who knows. I mean honestly, these guys are doing the best they can," he said.

He says that crews have been on his block nearly every day since the storms came through Tuesday. Those residents still have patience after nearly a week without electricity.

Ola McLaurin has lived in Gary since 1974, and echoes Allen, saying crews are doing their job and they can't get everybody. 

"We just gotta wait. It's on God," she said.

But not everyone is so forgiving, questioning why it's taking so long to restore power.

NIPSCO President Vince Parisi answered some of those questions. 

"We have 2000 people that we've really brought in, including our internal teams, to work on this storm. And we are really had a saturation point. If we add more, it would actually start to be more inefficient," he said.

Parisi didn't have power at his own home until Sunday night. Some customers he serves are still in that situation.

"Terrible. Hot, no heat, no air, can't ... the food all messed up. Terrible," McLaurin said.

Parisi says they're confident they'll stick to the original timeline, with 90% of outages from last Tuesday restored by the end of day Tuesday, with the rest by Friday.

NIPSCO resumes power restoration after workers' vehicle shot

The company paused power restorations temporarily over the weekend after a worker's vehicle was hit by gunfire early Saturday morning. 

Gary police said two NIPSCO employees were scouting around when someone fired on their vehicle, hitting their Jeep twice, with one bullet lodged in the back of a headrest. 

No injuries were reported. It is unclear if the workers were intentionally targeted.

As a result, the City of Gary says it's increasing security for NIPSCO crews. 

A communications manager for the company told CBS News Chicago that work did resume around 4 p.m. Saturday.