75,000 Northwest Indiana Residents Remain Without Power Following Severe Storms; Full Restoration for Gary Expected by August 25
Eight days after severe storms impacted northwest Indiana, approximately 75,000 Northern Indiana Public Service Co (NIPSCO) customers are still without electricity. Over 20,000 of these affected customers are in Gary, Indiana, where NIPSCO anticipates full power restoration by August 25. The outages began on August 11 due to severe weather, which initially cut power to around 300,000 NIPSCO customers. The utility has characterized this as the most extensive and widespread outage event in its history. Winds reached speeds of 159 kmph at Gary/Chicago International Airport during the August 11 storm, which the National Weather Service preliminarily confirmed as a derecho—a widespread, long-lived line of thunderstorms causing significant wind damage. The agency also reported winds between 113 kmph and 161 kmph across parts of eastern Illinois and northwest Indiana, along with five confirmed tornadoes. In Gary alone, roughly 300 poles and 44 transmission poles require repair or replacement, according to Melody ... 
