deadly storms<\/a> leveled trees and knocked down power lines across the region.<\/p>\nNorthern Indiana Public Service Co. said crews were working nonstop to fix the outages, but 75,000 customers still lacked electricity by late afternoon, mostly in Lake County next to the Illinois border.<\/p>\n
They included more than 20,000 customers in Gary, where residents lined up again at community centers for hot meals and a place to charge phones.<\/p>\n
The latest news for Gary wasn’t good: Full restoration is not expected there until Aug. 25, NIPSCO said.<\/p>\n
Roughly 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles need to be repaired or replaced in Gary as a result of the storm, which carried winds of 99 mph (159 kilometers per hour), said Melody Birmingham, an executive at NIPSCO’s parent company.<\/p>\n
Birmingham acknowledged the \u201creal burden\u201d of losing perishable food and people living for days without air conditioning after a \u201chistoric storm\u201d that initially left 300,000 customers in the dark. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese aren’t simple repairs,\u201d Birmingham said at a news conference. \u201cThese are systems that are being rebuilt.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jeremy Spurrier, 51, said he’s fortunate to have a generator at his Portage home, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) southwest of Chicago. But the generator is expensive \u2014 it goes through about $75 of gas a day \u2014 and Spurrier said his family is relying on nonperishable food like soup. He drives to Illinois to get ice to chill his insulin.<\/p>\n
“If I run out of ice, that\u2019s several hundred dollars of insulin just ruined,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gary, a majority-Black city, has been especially hit hard, with some residents voicing frustration that they’re being ignored. Birmingham denied that low-income residents were being overlooked and blamed posts on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have areas that are probably affluent where we still have customers out as well. … This has nothing to do with race or any type of division,\u201d said Birmingham, who is Black. \u201cIt’s really a matter of where the storm hit.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton acknowledged that locals were \u201cfrustrated and exhausted\u201d but said more than 600 linemen were working to restore power in the city.<\/p>\n
“I want to reiterate this is clearly not just a Gary situation. It is a northwest Indiana situation,\u201d Melton said.<\/p>\n
A 4-year-old boy, three men and three women were among those who had died since the storms began Aug. 11, said Liz Woods, a spokesperson for the state Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
In Whiting, Myra Carden, 74, said her home wasn\u2019t damaged by the storm \u2014 \u201cnot even a chair was blown over in the yard.\u201d But she was in her second blackout Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Carden, her son and three dogs lost power for more than two days last week. Then the electricity went out again Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than once I have put in an outage report,\u201d she said. \u201dAll I get back is, \u2018You already put in a report.\u2019 Well, what do you want me to do? … This doesn\u2019t make sense. Of course I\u2019m not a lineman; I\u2019m a paralegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carden uses a generator to keep the refrigerator humming but only when someone\u2019s home to monitor it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a deep freeze in the garage packed full with beef and chicken. I\u2019m sure everything will be thrown away,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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