Nearly 175,000 in Northwest Indiana still without power in wake of severe storms

Nearly 175,000 homes and businesses in Northwest Indiana remained without power on Friday night, days after severe storms caused widespread damage across the region.

Tuesday's storm packed wind gusts of 99 miles per hour. That's as strong as an EF1 tornado.

In the Miller Beach community in Gary, businesses were still in the dark on Friday. Traffic lights have become four way stops. Downed trees and branches lined Hemlock Avenue.

The cleanup has been nonstop since Tuesday, but more than 34,000 NIPSCO customers in Gary were still without power.

Miller Beach resident Angelo Comer described Tuesday's storm as "23 minutes of hell."

"The sirens went off. Things went to flying. You could hear it hitting the houses," she said.

Downed power lines were visible throughout the community on Friday.

"I'm lucky. I have a generator. It works on part of my house," Corya Channing said. "I've got some coolers with ice right now. I was able to get some fresh food yesterday, by driving to Michigan City."

Comer had to fill two garbage bags with food from her freezer and place them in the dumpster in front of her home after losing power. 

"Even the community food bank is out of power right now," she said.

 NIPSCO said power should be restored to 90% of those impacted by the storms by Tuesday and 100% of customers should have power restored by next Friday.

"I'm frustrated of course. I mean, these outages, this is not the first time this has happened. This is like the second or third time this summer that we've had an outage, but this is much, much, much more serious," Channing said.

Comer said with the outages have come what she calls extraordinary rate increases.

"I opened up the bill and almost fainted. In February, it was $785.00. NIPSCO carries everything, not just your lights, but your gas also," she said.

Gary City Councilman At-Large Darren Washington said that's why the Gary Common Council unanimously passed a resolution putting NIPSCO on notice about what they see as excessive rates, because he said NIPSCO should have competition.

"Friday, next Tuesday, next Friday for what we are paying as rate payers? It is totally unacceptable and the legislators, they need to bring competition to this area," he said.

In response to the outage, NIPSCO said additional storms on Wednesday and Thursday created new outages, causing additional damage and slowing the restoration work that was already underway.

East Chicago Church hosts community free cookout amid storm recovery efforts

The power was still out Friday at the East Chicago Church, just like the rest of the block, but even in the dark, Pastor Manuel Corazzari was serving up burgers and a safe place for his community to gather.

"People told me, 'We're so discouraged, we went want to end our lives,'" he said. "The worst thing you can when something is happening like this is do nothing."

For those without power, the event not only charged up their electronics, but their spirits too.

"When the power goes out, we all power up, we all come together, because together we can make a difference in the communities," said Tamye Diaferio, who organized the barbecue.

Kids were handed back-to-school supplies, while families like Alexandra Martinez's continued trying to make it through without electricity.

"It gets them out of the house, and it gets them fed, because unfortunately we had to throw a lot of our food out," Martinez said.

East Chicago resident Jennifer Fodor said it's been especially tough dealing without power because of her daughter's medical issues.

"It's just been hard for us, and we've been waiting around trying to get food and stuff, and trying not to let my daughter have no seizures," she said.

Woman sues NIPSCO after hip surgery delayed due to power outages

Attorneys for a 77-year-old Porter County woman have filed a lawsuit against NIPSCO, claiming her emergency hip surgery was delayed because of the power outage.

The lawsuit accuses the utility of failing to properly clear trees and brush away from power lines, contributing to the outages.

"The money that they should have spent on vegetation management over the past couple of years has been instead treated as profit; excess profit," attorney Ken Allen said.

NIPSCO, in a statement, said, "NIPSCO is aware of the lawsuit filed related to the recent weather events and power outages. Safety and reliability are fundamental to how we operate. Our immediate focus remains on restoring service safely and as quickly as possible to customers impacted by this week's weather events. We will address the specific allegations through the appropriate legal process."