RismadarVoice Reporters, August 20, 2026
Tens of thousands of residents in northwest Indiana remained without electricity on Wednesday, more than a week after severe storms killed several people and caused widespread damage across the region.
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said about 75,000 customers were still without power by late Wednesday afternoon, with most of the outages concentrated in Lake County near the Illinois border.
More than 20,000 affected customers were in Gary, where residents continued to rely on community centres for hot meals and facilities to charge their mobile phones.
NIPSCO said full restoration in Gary was not expected until August 25.
The utility company said the storms, which generated winds of up to 99 mph, damaged or destroyed about 300 utility poles and 44 transmission poles in Gary alone.
Melody Birmingham, an executive with NIPSCO’s parent company, said crews were working continuously to restore electricity, describing the situation as a major rebuilding effort rather than routine repairs.
The storms initially left about 300,000 customers without electricity.
Residents have continued to face difficulties as the prolonged outages affect food storage, cooling and other basic needs.
Jeremy Spurrier, a 51-year-old resident of Portage, said he had been relying on a generator but was spending about $75 daily on fuel. He also said he had been travelling to Illinois to obtain ice to keep his insulin refrigerated.
Meanwhile, some Gary residents have expressed frustration over the pace of restoration, with concerns that lower-income communities were being overlooked.
Birmingham rejected the allegation, saying the distribution of outages was determined by the areas hardest hit by the storms rather than residents’ race or economic status.
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton acknowledged that residents were frustrated and exhausted but said more than 600 utility workers were involved in restoration efforts across the city.
He stressed that the damage extended beyond Gary, describing the crisis as a northwest Indiana-wide emergency.
State officials said seven people had died since the storms began on August 11, including a four-year-old boy, three men and three women.
In Whiting, 74-year-old Myra Carden said her home escaped storm damage, but she had experienced a second power outage on Wednesday.
Carden said she, her son and three dogs had endured an outage lasting more than two days the previous week before losing electricity again on Tuesday.
She said the repeated outages had put food stored in her freezer at risk of spoiling and forced her to depend on a generator to keep her refrigerator running.
