After some Gary residents endured two to three weeks without electricity in August, many are still living with uncertainty.
Residents contacted by Capital B report that they are experiencing intermittent power disruptions after power was restored to the city following the storm. They said they fear their lights will flicker and go dark whenever it rains or a strong wind gust blows. They worry their refrigerators will go silent for several hours, sometimes even days, spoiling their perishable food.
Residents say there were occasional power outages before the Aug. 11 storm. But the hardship of enduring a weekslong blackout has made the recent interruptions, even more unbearable.
Capital B Gary has reached out to NIPSCO for a statement about the intermittent blackouts, but has yet to receive a response.
Resident Sherry Smith says she remembers the August storm as if it were yesterday. The former Gary Common Council employee was without power for two weeks after the storm, and she said the recurring blackouts constantly keep her on edge that she’ll be plunged into darkness again.
“We need to take this seriously because we’re still having power out,” she said.
“Every time it rains, I’m thinking that my power may go out,” Smith said. “Those trees may fall on the wires, and my neighbors’ electricity will go out again.”
She’s not alone.
Westside resident and business owner Marsha Jones says her power goes out whenever it rains. After the storm struck, her lights remained dark for 19 days, water damaged her basement, and her roof leaks from two holes.
“It’s something that I never had to deal with before,” she said.
Jones hasn’t slept in her house in more than two months. Instead, she has been staying with her mother, who hasn’t experienced any other blackouts. Luckily, her business, MJ’s Boutique, avoided damage from the Aug. 11 storm and hasn’t experienced disruptions since power was restored to the city. But she misses sleeping in her own bed.
“I want to go home,” she said. “I just want to go back to how life was before the storm.”
Jones’ frustrations are compounded by the impact on her checkbook. Her utility bill is twice as high as what she expected to pay after almost three weeks without power. She said she spoke with NIPSCO and was told someone would come out to check her meter to see why the bill was so high.
She said she’s still waiting.
“They need to be held accountable,” Jones said. “I’m just praying for us to get back to normal.”
Persistent power outages
Gary Councilman Myles Tolliver Sr., who lives in Miller, said the problem predates the storm: Power interruptions have become the norm.
“The wind blows the wrong way, we lose power,” said Tolliver, whose electricity has been interrupted four times since the storm. “We might lose power for six to seven hours if the wind blows, and if it rains, we might lose power for a day or so.”
Tolliver has lost power while preparing for council meetings or while his kids do their homework. Sometimes the lights are not restored until later in the evening. Like the others, he called NIPSCO to inquire about the situation but got no explanation, only an estimated restoration time.
The utility’s failure to properly maintain power lines may be causing the problem, Tolliver said.
“If you go and just ride around the Miller area, or really Gary as a whole … you can see that the lines are embedded in tree limbs and leaves,” Tolliver said. “There are trees that were marked to be cut years ago that haven’t been cut. No maintenance has been happening.”
While he’s seen some work done, he said more is needed so Gary residents don’t have to deal with these problems, especially after storms.
After the storm, Tolliver’s house was without electricity for 2½ weeks. Without a working refrigerator, his family lost all their food.
Tolliver sent his family to stay at a hotel outside Chicago. While they were away, he spent much of his time assisting residents in the community.
“It was some things that I don’t know if I’ll ever see again, but it was definitely life-changing,” he said. “I had to be there because they’re depending on me. It’s the reason why I’m in office to serve and make sure they get what they need.”
Shopping differently for food
As Gary residents struggle to recover, the memory of the lengthy power outage, combined with untimely interruptions in electric service since then, has changed how they live.
“I think everybody’s feeling that way, and I think it’s changed the trajectory of how we save food,” Tolliver said.
With nearly 40% of Gary residents receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, the community faces another layer of uncertainty.
“When I look at things differently now, I never save food as I used to,” Tolliver added. “Now it’s only buying enough to last a certain amount of time. But with food costs rising constantly and the approaching holiday/winter season, it’s hard to find a middle ground as circumstances change.”
The persistent outages led him, and many others in the Gary community, to push state officials for answers. In September, a joint committee hearing at the Indiana Statehouse examined NIPSCO’s storm preparedness and response. There, Tolliver joined fellow leaders and residents in expressing frustration with the utility’s handling of the disaster.
“I think for a lot of time, elected officials tiptoe around things, and that’s one thing that I’m not going to do: I’m going to speak my truth,” Tolliver said.
Smith woke up around 4 a.m. to drive almost three hours from Gary to the Statehouse in Indianapolis to tell lawmakers about the frequent power outages.
“This happened before the derecho. It happened during the derecho, and it’s still happening as we get ready to come into the winter months,” she said while speaking on the House floor.
The weekend before her testimony, Smith said, her power went out around 11:30 a.m. Saturday and returned around 4 p.m. The following day, it went out again between 1:30 a.m. and 4 a.m.
“It wasn’t any type of storm or anything,” she recalled. “It was a nice day, and the power just went out.”
