Organizations helping Gary, Indiana, residents as crews race to restore power

Organizations are pitching in to provide help to more than 20,000 people in Northwest Indiana who've been without power for nearly two weeks.

In Gary, they're helping families with food and critical resources as restoration efforts continue.

Rita Ward and her neighbors are trying to stay optimistic, waiting for power to return in Calumet Township, which includes Gary. She says she's been without power for 12 days so far.

"It's been pretty rough because we're on septic here, so we have no water. Kind of living out of buckets and jugs," she said.

Ward is among the thousands still without power, almost two weeks since destructive storms led to widespread outages.

"It's been a struggle. The struggle is real, but we're hanging in there. I know it could be worse, so we're just praying, praying for power to come back on," she said.

Crews are racing around the clock to help restore power throughout northwestern Indiana. 

NIPSCO says this storm caused nearly 1,200 power poles to be broken — that's nearly 10 times more than the previous four major storms combined, the utility says.

At the Lake Ridge Fire Department, families arrive for relief resources as they grapple with a lack of power.

"It's beautiful to see the community come together and give resources," Jasmine Perez said. "It's been a lot. I do have three children. They all have to return back to school on Monday."

World Central Kitchen, known for providing food relief in war zones and natural disaster areas, is among the groups on the ground. They say they'll stay as long as needed as the area recovers.

"The primary need right now is for support for people who have been shut in from our more public distribution sites," Mae Bipart-Butler said.

Bipart-Butler is the manager of World Central Kitchen.  

"Since yesterday, when we served our first 500 meals, today we've grown to about 4,000 and will continue to grow to meet the need," she said.

On Sunday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun announced that he deployed the Indiana National Guard to help clear the way for NIPSCO crews. ComEd also sent dozens of crews to help assist in restoration efforts.  

Gary Community School Corporation also announced on Sunday that school will resume Monday and will be operating on a two-hour delay for students.  The Buffoon Early Childhood Development Center, however, will be closed because they still don't have power.

Estimated Tuesday restoration deadline nears in Gary

NIPSCO says full power restoration for Gary won't happen until Tuesday night at the earliest — meaning some residents, yet again, are spending another night in the dark. Many of them still can't believe they're without power.

For the 5000 block of Adams Street, one side has power, while the other is still waiting.

Ernest Collins thought he did everything right. He bought a $10,000 generator in July, a little over a month before the storms hit. But it only worked for two days before it suddenly stopped.

"Cost me a big time. The gas, the food, the spoiled food that I threw out," he said.

Technicians told him it was a lemon and they'd get him a replacement. But in the meantime, he's reliant on a loaner.

"They said within two or three days I would have a new unit put in, but so far I'm still buying gas for it. That was on Thursday."

Next-door neighbor Michele Harris briefly borrowed Collins' power, but without it she hasn't been able to use her oxygen or CPAP machines.

"I'm struggling to breathe every day and trying to do the best that we can until God will provide eventually," she said.

Neighbors say it's not hard to see why their power's still out, with NIPSCO lines tangled in their back alley.

Harris said she never thought when power went out, she would go through this.

"No God no. Never never. I was down in North Carolina during Hurricane Helena and their power wasn't even out this long … and that was a hurricane," she said.

As the estimated Tuesday deadline nears, more utility crews were spotted in the area. Residents are hoping that one of them will be the ones to turn their power back on