Tuesday marks two weeks without power for thousands of customers in Northwest Indiana..
According to NIPSCO, a few thousand customers are still without power, most of them in Gary, after August 11 storms knocked out service to several communities in Northwest Indiana. But there is hope.
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The utility said everyone should be back online by Tuesday night. That is reason for celebration amid the frustration.
“I’m pretty much somewhat believing what they’re saying, but then I’ll just be glad when everything gets back on track,” Gary resident Jeremy Bradley said.
Bradley hopes this will be one of the last times he’ll have to come to this community center for a hot meal. The Gary resident is among others here hoping the power will finally come back on Tuesday night.
Crews began the day working around Gary to repair damaged lines and clear trees other debris.
According to NIPSCO, thousands remain in the dark some two weeks after August 11 powerful storms knocked out service to several communities in Northwest Indiana.
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They said everyone will be back online by Tuesday night.
Angie Hicks is one of the lucky ones. The caregiver said her service came back online Monday night.
“It’s very inviting to have our power back on cause power is everything,” Hicks said. “See, we lost our electric, and God restored the power.”
Sponsored by the city of Gary, the City Life Center of Northwest Indiana has been- serving three meals a day since the storms caused a massive power outage in the area and is vowing to continue help those in need even after the power comes back on.
“And then, on the other side, we have supplies where they can get household supplies to help them clean their homes, clean up from not having power and things like that,” City of Gary hub head volunteer Marsa Jones said. “After this, the city is still gonna continue to support. There’s different events and things that they are planning to do just to support the citizens of Gary.”
Still, for some, there’s frustration about why it has taken so long.
Meanwhile, many said the disaster has caused the community to come together to help each other and the city of Gary is stronger because of it.
“I just pretty much believe that it pretty much brought the community more together, just learn how to learn to pray for each other, keep our faith in trust in,” Bradley said.
Residents said it is still an uphill battle with financial strain as they must now fight to replace what was lost.
