People in Munster and Highland, Indiana, could be without power another week after damaging storms

Some people living in northwest Indiana might be waiting another week to have their power restored from last week's storm.

NIPSCO on Tuesday estimated the towns of Highland and Munster will be the last to have their lights back on, with full restoration by 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 25.

As of Tuesday afternoon, NIPSCO said there were more than 98,000 customers in northwest Indiana still without power. At the height of last week's storms, approximately 300,000 customers were without power.

With power out for a week already, residents in Munster have had it, and they've been taking matters into their own hands.

They can't turn the power on themselves, but they can clear some of the debris covering their streets, sidewalks, and homes, and help others in the process.

"We cried, we cried, and we cried some more, mainly because no one was expecting this," Kristin Savage said as she showed off the destruction in her back yard in Munster, which is littered with cut up tree trunks and limbs.

"We have about six trees that fell on the house. Insurance company did send someone out to come clean it. However, they just left the trees in the back, because that's literally what they're supposed to do," Savage said.

With some trees remaining that NIPSCO is responsible for removing, no NIPSCO crews in sight, she found hope in strangers.

"It was just like a shot in the dark. Like, people will help or they won't," she said. "The only thing you can do at this point is ask for help."

Savage met neighbor Stephanie Orr on Tuesday, after posting on a neighborhood Facebook page asking for help. Orr and many others answered the call.

"What's an hour or two hours of my day to help other people? And I would want that in return. So, it's kind of like, treat others how you want to be treated," Orr said.

Orr doesn't have power in her own home either. She said Tuesday was the first time she's seen any electric company crews since last week's storms.

"I don't even think it's NIPSCO that's on our street. It's a different power company," she said.

In Munster, a few trucks from PraXel Line Services, a Kentucky-based electrical contractor, were stepping in to help.

But nothing compared to the show of force visible in Savage's yard.

"This was a traumatic experience," Orr said.

"It is, and you're just like, how do you help? What do you do?" Savage said.

Indiana residents patiently wait for power 

Back in Highland, some residents remain patient and are taking it day by day.

"They are doing what they can and there is no use getting upset with the lineman or anything. It's out of our control. There is nothing we can do to change it," said Carrie Velez.

NIPSCO communications manager Jessica Cantarelli says the goal is always restoring power before the estimated time of restoration.

"We understand how difficult a multi-day outage is. We understand their frustration. We are doing everything we can to restore them as safely and quickly as we can," she said.

"It's really made us a lot more grateful for the things we do have and realizing how lucky we are to have the resources that we have," Velez said.

And it's not just people struggling with these widespread power outages. Volunteers with a cat rescue that is without power are desperately working to save cats from a fire-damaged home

"They aren't used to being out here, so we need to get them, take them in and find them other loving homes," said James Shultz, director and CEO of Hagrid's Hope Cat Rescue.

The rescue is trying to save 12 domesticated cats forced from a Valparaiso home. Shultz's facility in Portage still doesn't have power and suffered damage from the storm.

"Me being as a rescue, I can't just give up on an animal that has the potential to love somebody and to be loved," he said.

NIPSCO insisted they're working to restore power to everyone as soon as possible. They also said not everyone in Munster and Highland will have to wait until next Tuesday to get power back.

"The Tuesday restoration estimate is a global estimate for the remaining customers affected by the most significant damage. It is not an indication that every customer in Highland, Munster, or other impacted communities will be without power until that time. We fully expect customers to continue coming back on throughout the restoration process. Our goal is always to restore service sooner whenever possible," NIPSCO said in a statement.

NIPSCO said they're not just restoring power, but rebuilding parts of the whole system, which is why they expect repairs to take so long.