10 days after severe storms, frustrations mount in Northwest Indiana as power outages drag on
Tens of thousands in Northwest Indiana remained in the dark on Friday, 10 days after powerful storms knocked out power across the region.
Frustration among residents continues as power restoration for some remains days away.
Officials said Hammond City Hall is now housing Indiana Gov. Mike Braun's incident command operations for coordinating storm recovery efforts across the state.
As of Friday night, more than 37,000 homes and businesses in Northwest Indiana remained without power, according to NIPSCO. More than half of those outages – approximately 18,500 – were in Gary.
At the Parkshore Commons Apartments, power has been out ever since severe storms hit the region with widespread outages on Aug. 11.
"I'm frustrated and emotional, too," said Ruben Chavez, who has been unable to refrigerate his diabetes medication or use the building's elevator for 10 days. "Me, I'm on the fifth [floor], so ever since the outage, I've got to climb them stairs."
The power outage has also impacted others who are wheelchair-bound, like Howard, who did not want his face shown on camera.
"You gotta do what you gotta do, if that means crawling down the stairs to bring yourself down, or have someone bring you up," he said.
Community activists want to raise awareness of the conditions in Gary as NIPSCO crews continue to work to restore power, estimating some communities might not get back power until Tuesday – two weeks after the storms.
"This place is not livable," community activist Mother Diva said. "This is going on almost two weeks. This is unacceptable."
Gary City Councilwoman Lori Latham (D-1st) said the storm and the ensuing outage has exacerbated the area's deep issues of poverty and infrastructure concerns.
"It's heartbreaking. The impact has been incredible," Latham said. "It's a serendipitous, I guess, that now the storm has peeled off that layer and has brought national attention to some of the things that we've been suffering with now for generations."
Latham said the fallout from the storm should be a wakeup call to prevent a situation like this from happening again.
"We need to work on utility reform, and we need to make the investments that make our people more resilient," she said.
On Friday, NIPSCO estimated Hammond should have power back by Saturday night. Portage and Gary aren't expected to have power fully restored until Tuesday.
A class-action lawsuit has been filed against NIPSCO, accusing the company of failing to properly manage trees and vegetation around power lines before the storms.
