Tuesday deadline looms for full power restoration in Gary, Indiana

Everyone in Northwest Indiana on Tuesday should have their power back on, according to NIPSCO.

Many communities like Gary have been in the dark for almost two weeks since the devastating derecho tore through. Since then, crews have worked around the clock to get neighborhoods back up and running.

In the Aetna neighborhood of Gary on Monday, power and tree crews covered the streets fixing lines and cutting debris left over from the storm. Those homes are right next to a NIPSCO substation.

"I saw a lot of cars going and coming, but no trucks were working until yesterday," said Jorge Bermudez-Rivas.

He and his family saw crews on Sunday and said they had been without power for 13 days. He says they had no air conditioning, threw out food in their fridge, and bought a generator to do laundry. On Monday morning, their power was restored.

Meanwhile, just two blocks away, TV is all Angenita Winfield and her mom want in their house.

"There's nothing in the refrigerator right now ... it's empty," Winfield said.

They are still without power, relying on ice boxes to keep food cold and candles to light their home at night.

"Yesterday, we, my mom and I, we were driving in and we was like, 'Mom, we know if we get to this section right here, there is a possibility we might have power.' So we got our fingers crossed, we betting, we get to that section ... no," she said.

Gov.Mike Braun is calling for an investigation into NIPSCO. He wants to know if the company properly cleared trees before the storm and used money to improve infrastructure as promised.

Winfield hopes their power will come on Tuesday, the day the utility company told Gary residents they would have it restored by. 

Now she and Bermudez-Rivas are planning for any future outages, saying you don't know how much you rely on simple tasks until your power is gone.

"I talked to Four Seasons to get a generator ... a generator in the house because I am not going through this no more, ain't no way," Bermudez-Rivas said.

Earlier this month, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, announced that federal disaster assistance is now available for the state of Indiana following severe storms. 

Individual assistance is now available through the Indiana Department of Homeland Security as part of the State Disaster Relief Fund. Folks impacted by this month's storms may qualify for emergency grants of up to $5,000.