Indiana City Endures Twelve Days Without Electricity

The prolonged outage has weighed heavily on a community where roughly one third of the city's 70,000 residents live in poverty. Families have thrown away hundreds of dollars' worth of spoiled groceries, queued for hot meals and searched for places to charge their phones, while schools serving thousands of children have stayed closed because of fallen trees and safety concerns. Experts warn that the health risks grow with each day of a prolonged outage: poorly ventilated generators can cause carbon monoxide poisoning, refrigerated food gradually becomes unsafe, and medical devices may lose their charge. Neighbouring Illinois, struck by the same storm, recovered far sooner. An executive at NIPSCO's parent company argued that the affected part of Illinois had fewer trees and different infrastructure, including some power lines buried underground, observing that “no storm is created equal”.

As frustration mounts, residents have filed a class-action lawsuit accusing NIPSCO of failing to manage the trees that brought down its power lines; the company denies wrongdoing and says it will defend itself vigorously in court. Repair crews from around the country have arrived to mend broken poles and damaged equipment, but the utility does not expect full restoration in some neighbourhoods, including Gary, until almost two weeks after the storm. Community groups and volunteers have offered what one organiser called a “silver lining”, distributing hot meals, food and supplies to vulnerable neighbours. Faith leaders, however, delivered a blunter message at a weekend news conference: for a city that describes itself as permanently in “survival mode”, twelve days without electricity is long enough.