School to begin in Gary, Indiana, with thousands of families still without power

Almost two weeks since power was knocked out in Northwest Indiana, tens of thousands of people were still in the dark on Monday morning.

Some families in Munster, Portage, Hammond, Lake Station, and Merrillville remained without power, but two-thirds of the affected NIPSCO customers still without power were in Gary.

Most students in Gary will be able to return to school on Monday. The Gary Community School Corporation also announced on Sunday that school will resume Monday and will be operating on a two-hour delay for students.

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said NIPSCO is making progress, but it is not good enough.

"I stayed in strict communication with NIPSCO, and I have made it very clear that the current pace of restoration is unacceptable," he said Sunday.

Indiana Gov. Mike Braun agrees.

On Sunday, Braun announced that he deployed the Indiana National Guard to help clear the way for NIPSCO crews. ComEd also sent dozens of crews to help assist in restoration efforts.

Braun wrote in an X post that there is "no excuse for these delays."

Mayor Melton said 700 NIPSCO linemen and 300 vegetation crews are dedicated to Gary alone. As of Monday morning, more than 7,000 Gary residents remained without electricity.

The storm that caused the outages happened 13 days earlier.

Meanwhile, popular social media influencer named Keith Lee heard about Gary's struggle, and is donating his time and money in a special giveaway at the Roosevelt Pavilion in Gary from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday.

"We have supplies until they run out. We got a DJ coming for music. We got a bunch of food trucks — shoutout to every food truck that wants to participate," said Lee. "The buzz I've heard from Gary, Indiana, has been amazing."

Hopefully, a little relief will go a long way. But nothing compares to those lights going back on.

NIPSCO predicts most customers will have power back by Tuesday night, a full two weeks after the storm that caused the outage.