Gary, Indiana, nears full power restoration more than 2 weeks after violent storms

More than two weeks after violent storms wiped out power to thousands of customers, the lights and air conditioners were finally back on Wednesday for almost all residents of Gary, Indiana. As of Wednesday evening, just over 100 utility customers in the city of 69,000 were still experiencing outages, according to the Northern Indiana Public Service Co., known as NIPSCO. “Storm restoration efforts related to the Aug. 11 storm and subsequent weather events are substantially complete,” the company said in an update on its website Wednesday morning. “While crews continue working through a limited number of individual outage cases, restoration activities have concluded across the broader service territory.” A derecho — a storm that can produce tornado-strength winds — struck Indiana and other parts of the Midwest with straight-line winds of 70 to 100-plus mph on the morning of Aug. 11, the National Weather Service said. It tore down power lines and inflicted what NIPSCO called “the worst damage in known company history,” knocking out power to 80% of its customers, around 375,000. Fewer than 150 outages remained Wednesday night in the rest of the company’s service area. In addition to the derecho, there were also tornadoes, including a 26-mile-long EF2 twister that touched down in Illinois and went into Indiana, according to the National Weather Service. That tornado had an estimated peak wind of 110 mph, and it damaged roofs and uprooted trees, the agency said. NIPSCO had come under fire for the long delay in restoring power. In an address Sunday, Gary Mayor Eric Melton said, “The current pace of restoration is unacceptable.” Some residents of Gary, a Rust Belt city on the shore of Lake Michigan, around 25 miles southeast of Chicago, described people sleeping in their running cars with the air conditioning on to get some relief from the heat. Calvin Boone, 44, said this week that generators have been stolen in his neighborhood. Joetta Walker, 73, who has asthma, said that with no power, she hadn’t been able to use her nebulizer and had to rely on an inhaler to help her breathe. Other Gary residents who spoke to NBC News this week said they couldn’t help but wonder whether the reason their city’s power was getting restored last was because it’s a mostly Black city. An executive at NIPSCO’s parent company told The Associated Press that the outages were a result of where the storm hit and had “nothing to do with race or any type of division.” Gov. Mike Braun, a Republican elected in 2024, criticized the utility company’s response and called for an investigation to be launched. “NIPSCO is a monopoly utility that Hoosiers pay every month with the expectation that it will use its considerable resources to maintain its system, prepare for severe weather and restore service as quickly as possible when disaster strikes,” Braun said in a news release Monday. “NIPSCO has failed to keep its end of the bargain,” he said. Braun said Tuesday that President Donald Trump had approved a request for a major disaster declaration. The declaration allows more aid. There were seven storm-related deaths in Indiana, according to a count of official reports by NBC News. One was in Lake County, where Gary is; two were in Delaware County; and one person each died in Jennings, Porter, LaPorte and Henry counties, according to officials and family members. NIPSCO President and CEO Vince Parisi earlier asked for patience. “This was the worst damage we have ever seen, and we are grateful for the patience from our customers,” Parisi said in a statement Tuesday. “Thanks to thousands of people working around the clock, restoration is complete, and we’re now focused on supporting the communities still recovering.”