For James Hendricks, owner of Koney King and Cut Time Barbershop, two businesses in the Midtown area of Gary, Aug. 11 began like a typical business day.
He opened both businesses and welcomed clients and customers. But within hours, the weather would take a turn and bring one of the worst days that Gary has ever experienced.
As Hendricks went about his day, he started hearing rumors on social media about the weather while sitting in his barbershop and watching the storm roll in. At the end of the storm, he saw destruction that he said could only be described as a movie scene: fallen trees and debris everywhere, and poles snapped in half.
For him, those two minutes were the longest of his life.
“I was amazed at how quick that all happened,” he said.
A month after one of the worst storms in the history of Gary knocked out power for weeks, Hendricks and other prominent business owners in Gary are taking stock of the damage, working to recover and laying plans to protect their businesses and the community when the next one hits.
The Aug. 11 derecho knocked out power for nearly 400,000 NIPSCO customers across Northwest Indiana in the largest outage in the history of the utility and the county. In Gary, that left over 38,000 customers without power for two weeks, some even three.
Most businesses in Gary that are members of the Gary Chamber of Commerce have reopened with minimal residual problems, said Chuck Hughes, President and CEO of the chamber.
Some businesses in Gary stepped up to help the community by providing food and resources during the power outage. This is the first time they have told their stories of survival, generosity and rebuilding the community.
The storm lands
After arriving at work on the day of the storm, Hendricks turned on NBC Channel 5 to check the storm radar and what he saw shocked him.
“At 70 to 90 miles an hour, I said that storm would be here in no time,” he recalled, noticing that the storm was already causing damage across the border in Harvey. The sky turned greenish-purple, and his building started to shake slightly as the wind picked up.
As the storm rolled into town, the lights went out, and the barbershop door blew open and continuously slammed against the wall. The building shook. He had to run between the two businesses to close both doors before the force broke them.
Rex Blackwell, co-owner of Tiny’s Coffee Bar, was less than half a mile away from his restaurant, picking up supplies, as he watched the storm intensify. A Miller resident, he dropped off what he could at the restaurant and went to the lowest level of his home to watch safely.
“There are trees and garbage cans flying as if there is somebody rolling them,” he recalled as he told his wife, Peggy, to take refuge from the storm. “It was a very scary sight, and we lost everything here.”
His son, Matthew, watched the storm from the restaurant’s front window.
“It was nerve-racking,” he said.
Dr. Dexter Harris, executive director of Flourish Community Hub, heard about the storm and the damage while he was out of town on a business trip, and he knew they’d be hit hard. He started receiving pictures and videos as people asked what to do next.
A Midtown resident and owner of several businesses across the city, he worried about how each one was affected and what that meant for the community members he served.
“To be at a distance and for something that drastic to hit, my heart was heavy, and we wanted to do everything we could prior to getting back home,” he said. Growing up in Chicago, he’s never seen weather like this in his lifetime, at least in this area, he said.
He recalls seeing news about Hurricane Katrina and how it affected New Orleans, and compared it to what happened in Gary.
“With the power being out so long, I think that’s what really did it for Gary,” he said.
A business in Miller aids the community
By the time the storm was over, Blackwell and his family were in complete darkness. The building had sustained damage, water was leaking, and most of their patio umbrellas and furniture had blown away. With no power, the food in the fridge was at risk of spoiling, so they jumped into action.
“The thing I’m most proud of is that it’s what you do under stress, and what we started thinking about is, what can we do to help?” Blackwell said. “ We’re down, but some of this food we have we can prepare and help people who aren’t as fortunate as we are every day.”
From donating hundreds of meals daily to clearing trees and debris with their own vehicles or community help, they wanted to make a difference in the storm. Securing generators during the storm let them feed people, but it came with struggles.
Some days, they drove as far as Michigan City to beat the gas lines and make sure they had enough for their generators.
But they never stopped trying to show up for people, however they could. Some days, they gave gas to people who couldn’t travel outside the city or wait in line.
During the two weeks they were without lights, they also tried to be one of the spots on their street that reopened to serve food, but it became clear that working and having customers eat by lamplight wouldn’t work for them, so they kept focusing on helping the community in other ways.
“It was the community who was out there with those chainsaws,” Blackwell said, noting that the community showed up to clean when others didn’t, and that locals kept each other afloat. “It was a scary time, but to just try and help each other is probably the most important thing everybody in Gary could do.”
Two Midtown businesses provide relief
After the storm subsided, Hendricks stepped outside and realized how bad it had been. Seeing the electric pole for his business broken, he knew the problem wouldn’t be fixed in a day. He needed electricity to keep his food temperature safe to serve customers, so that same day he drove to the store to buy a $1300 generator.
As one of the few on Broadway with power, Koney King became a refuge for people who needed to charge their phones, access food, or get their bearings.
He’d wake up early every day to beat long lines at the gas station, to fill up gas cans and the generator. He had to hope he didn’t run out of food, that the fridge and freezer stayed regulated, and he could feed everyone who walked through that door.
“I did what I could,” he said.
Flourish Church, where Harris is pastor, flooded and lost power for two weeks. The restaurant at the community hub, and the restaurant Paige and Charlie’s, where Harris is a business partner, lost power. So did Harris’ street and home. Neighbors’ homes also sustained structural damage.
But Harris said not stepping up wasn’t an option.
Knowing the food in their storage would go bad, Harris decided they should donate it to the YWCA so others could make use of it. They also sent cooks and staff from the community hub restaurant and church members to prepare and serve food to those in need.
Harris also let the city use the Flourish Hub’s North building, located downtown, as a central resource center to feed people and distribute resources including food, toiletries, and more.
“That’s why we exist,” he said, referring to the community hub’s mission to connect other organizations to create wrap-around services.
After their power returned they opened their doors to community members who returned the favor by patronizing their business. The power might have been off, but the love is on through the support they received, Harris said.
“I think most businesses in Gary are just making it anyway, so it felt like another small grand opening. We had to reboot everything, but we’re eager to get back to serving the community,” Harris said.
What’s next after the storm
All their businesses have been open without fail since about two weeks after the storm. For many, like Tiny’s Coffee Bar and Paige and Charlie’s restaurant, what they didn’t donate to the community was unfortunately wasted.
That required deep-cleaning, reorganizing, and figuring out what moving forward looks like.
For Hendricks, Blackwell, Harris and other business owners in Gary, this has been a wake-up call to prepare for the next storm.
“We’re so comfortable in nature, with things just running according to plan, so we have to be prepared,” Hendricks said. He’s started making plans to clear some trees and other things around his business, hoping that if another storm of this magnitude happens, it can reduce the damage.
The team at Flourish has also asked, “How can we plan better?”
“It’s both getting people on their feet now and thinking long term and continuing to push our community towards a healthier place,” Harris said.
He proposed that the city designate locations in each district that are accessible during these storms and have information, supplies, or volunteers to help during the recovery process. In addition, he is looking at his own businesses and thinking about how they can each be better prepared next time.
“I think that there’s some things that the storm exposed that we can do better to make sure that Gary is not in the situation that it’s in, and that means taking care of Gary, not just after a storm, but every day.”
The owners of Tiny’s said the area needs a stronger grid and repairs to structural issues so this doesn’t happen again.
“This area is not ready, and it’s hard to be,” Matthew Blackwell said of the storms and the damage they caused. He hopes the aftermath will push officials to consider other options, including underground lines, clearing trees dangerously close to lines, and other sustainable ways to prevent a storm impact of this magnitude. “We’ve had our challenges in Gary over the years, and a lot of it ain’t our fault. In this situation, a lot of it ain’t our fault again,” he added.
Hughes said he’d love to see more effort between the chamber of commerce and city to create a more cohesive association that benefits and aligns with local businesses.
“There would be a network of businesses that can lean on each other and help each other through the process, in the event that this happens again,” he said. “Through unification, the business community would be better poised to receive even more resources.”
If any businesses are still in need of assistance, he encourages them to reach out to the city for help accessing FEMA assistance, SBA Loans, the Legacy Foundation, or other funding opportunities.
