A former industrial town in Indiana has been without power for 12 days following severe storms on 11 August. Wind gusts reached 99 mph, leaving nearly 30,000 customers still without electricity as of Sunday, according to Nipsco. Residents have described the storm as rare, with one resident telling the BBC, ‘I’ve never seen a storm like that in my entire life. Never, never.’

Storm Impact and Initial Struggles

The storm, which lasted only five to 10 minutes, brought flooding and tornadoes to the US Midwest, killing seven people. Gary, a town along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, was hit hardest. The National Weather Service recorded peak wind gusts at 99 mph. In the first few days after the storm, petrol stations, supermarkets, and pharmacies were without power, forcing residents to rely on what they had.

As the outage stretched into a second week, global food charity World Central Kitchen arrived to assist residents. The town has a history of power outages, but those lasting more than a week are rare. Gary, once home to the world’s largest steel mill, now has one-third of its roughly 70,000 residents living in poverty, according to US Census data.

Compounding Issues and Outrage

Residents have faced multiple challenges beyond power loss. Storm-damaged properties have left people without shelter, and access to food and clean water has been limited. Some have struggled to refrigerate medication, and a wheelchair user reported crawling down stairs due to non-functioning elevators.

In Schererville, additional outages occurred Thursday when power lines fell near US 41 and Main Street, affecting 9,000 customers. NIPSCO confirmed it responded to the incident. ‘You can’t cook,’ said Lottie Boss, who helped organize a food giveaway in Hammond. ‘You don’t have anything. You don’t have gas. You don’t have a stove. There’s no electricity.’

Wendy Komacsar was inside a Ross store when the power went out. ‘The lights started flickering in the store,’ she said. ‘It was scary.’ Kacie Kowalczyk, manager of James & Sons Fine Jewelers, reported seeing smoke from a power pole after the wires fell. ‘We heard a pretty big boom, and then we started to look out and saw (the) power line go down,’ she said.

Efforts to Restore Power

NIPSCO officials said crews were working around the clock to restore power. However, new outages in Schererville have delayed progress. As of Sunday, more than 345,000 customers had power restored, but nearly 30,000 remained without electricity. Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker announced that penalties and interest would be waived for taxpayers affected by the weather.

Residents continue to organize food giveaways and rely on local charities to meet basic needs. While the storm passed quickly, its effects have persisted for over a week, with many still waiting for power to return. The situation highlights the vulnerabilities of communities facing extreme weather events and the challenges of power restoration in rural and economically disadvantaged areas.