Things became all-too familiar for Kimya Williams after storms rumbled through Gary, Indiana, earlier this month leaving big chunks of the mostly-Black city in the dark for two weeks. The power outage reminded the 50-year-old of what she experienced in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina knocked out electricity to many. Williams’ home was one of more than 38,300 homes and businesses in Gary to lose power from the Aug. 11 storms.
She initially tried to stick it out and stay put, but the darkness got the best of her and Williams’ left for Indianapolis to stay with her children. It was too dark,” Williams told The Monday. On Monday, one of the poorest and blackest cities in America still had no power.
The day before, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton called the pace of restoration “unacceptable.” “We’re at day 12 and 12 days is too long for families to be without power, 12 days is too long for parents to worry about their children and for businesses to lose revenue,” Melton said in an update to the community. Northern Indiana Public Service Co., the area’s electricity provider, said Monday that more than 370,000 customers lost power and that more than 364,000 have had their service restored. The remaining customers should have power back by Tuesday.
The utility said that figure represents less than 8% of its customers. Some residents were comparing the situation to Gary. A resident in neighboring Porter County filed a lawsuit in state court last week accusing NIPSCO of negligence and requesting a class action for residents of Indiana who have suffered as a result.
The complaint said the utility company failed to maintain trees and other vegetation hazards growing near its power lines, a failure that “predictably” resulted in the recent outage and others after storms caused the vegetation to fall on the lines. In a written statement, NIPSCO strongly disagrees with the characterization of their vegetation management practices and will “vigorously defend” itself in court, the company said in a statement. The vegetation management process is overseen by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission.
Mike Braun on Monday said he has directed the state consumer advocate to petition for an investigation into NIPSCO’s preparation for, and response to, recent prolonged power outages caused by severe weather. The investigation also is to look into whether the utility “adequately maintained vegetation and cleared rights-of-way to protect its infrastructure and whether funding approved by state regulators for infrastructure and reliability improvements was spent as promised,” Braun said. Decades of disinvestment worsen weather impacts Experts have noted that in cases of severe weather, natural disasters and especially extreme heat, the poor are most vulnerable.
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