As thousands remain without power dating from last Tuesday’s storms, Northwest Indiana community leaders and residents are frustrated with both the slow pace of restoration and perceived lack of communication with NIPSCO, especially after a Sunday night message on community restoration times neglected to mention some of the hardest-hit communities.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, NIPSCO reported that 102,000 customers remain without power and about 75% of those originate from last Tuesday’s storms. At its height, the utility said it had 301,000 outages — which the company said was the largest outage in its history.
Johnny Brown, left, moves a large chunk of maple tree with the help of Ray Parpart and Travis Conrad while clearing downed trees on their neighbors yard on Hamilton Street on Thursday, August 13, 2026, in Portage, Indiana. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
Last week, NIPSCO estimated that 90% of customers would receive power back by Aug. 18, with the remaining 10% resolved by Aug. 21. Sunday’s message detailed when specific communities would see a majority of residents with power restored through Wednesday. The statement didn’t mention Gary, Munster, Highland, Lake Station, Portage, Griffith, East Chicago or Hammond — some of the communities with the largest share of outages — and thousands of comments showed the exasperation felt on the company’s Facebook post. NIPSCO did clarify that if a community wasn’t listed, it may still be under assessment or it’s part of a larger service area, and there may be individual cases that extend beyond the times provided.
Dyer Town Council President Bob Starkey posted a letter to Facebook Sunday expressing frustration with what he said was the slow pace of restorations and said the town got only a “boilerplate” reply from NIPSCO. According to the utility’s website, more than 4,100 people were without power Monday.
Residents “are frustrated at not seeing any progress on the down power lines,” Dyer Town Manager David Hein wrote in an email in response to questions.
By Monday, Starkey said in an email he had a “very productive conversation” with NIPSCO President and COO Vince Parisi.
One of the hundreds of trees that were damaged in Munster due to winds in excess of 90 mph and a confirmed tornado as were part of Tuesday’s storms. (Christin Nance Lazerus/Post-Tribune)
“I was told that currently they have crews working on four ‘source points’ that bring power to Dyer,” Starkey told the Post-Tribune. “The result of that work should be known later today and will give us a better picture on distribution restoration; the power to homes.”
When asked what NIPSCO leadership could do differently in the future, Starkey said he would defer to the town manager, but added they needed a “change in their communication policies with the municipalities.”
In a Monday afternoon statement, NIPSCO said restoration efforts have been affected by the scale and complexity of the damage.
“Since the storm began, NIPSCO has mobilized all available resources, including our own crews, mutual aid personnel, qualified contractors, affiliated employees, and support from the Indiana National Guard and law enforcement,” according to the emailed statement. “We understand the frustration of customers who have been without power for an extended period of time. We share that frustration and are committed to restoring every customer as quickly as possible.
“However, restoration is dictated by the severity and extent of the damage. In some areas, repairs to major transmission and distribution infrastructure must be completed before work can begin on smaller sections of the system serving individual neighborhoods. Every community matters to us, and restoration priorities are based on system needs, safety considerations and the work required to restore service to the greatest number of customers as efficiently as possible.”
Facility Service Advisor Guy Trueblood clears downed canopy facing from Family Express on Silhavy Rd. after a storm passed through Valparaiso, Indiana on Tuesday, August 11, 2026. NIPSCO reported approximately 300,000 customers without power following the storm.(Andy Lavalley/for the Chicago Tribune)
Starkey acknowledged that the scope of the damage is unprecedented.
“(In) the 6 years I’ve been on the council we’ve not had such widespread devastation and outages, so there is little to compare to,” Starkey wrote. “This is worse than the ‘08 floods in terms of scope.”
A wastewater treatment plan, a “couple of lift stations” and one water tower are currently running on generators, town manager Dave Hein wrote. In about a week, the town has spent around $45,000 on storm cleanup, like clearing downed trees and brush. The police station and town hall are designated cooling centers with bottled water and charging stations. The town is “referring any food needs” to St John Township Community Center. Residents with “specific needs” can call the town hall, he said.
On Facebook, St. John Township Trustee Cathy Lareau wrote they are offering food assistance via the St. John Township Food Pantry and offering a charging and cooling center at its building, 1515 W. Lincoln Highway in Schererville. Residents must show a photo identification.
Highland Town Council President George Georgeff, R-1, on Monday got a phone call for which he’d been desperately hoping but not expecting: NIPSCO Public Affairs and Economic Development Director Rick Calinski was on the horn asking how to help the town as more than 50% of it remains without power.
Since the Highland Fire Station has power, Georgeff said Calinski pledged NIPSCO workers would get Town Hall and the police station up and running to start, which Georgeff said he appreciates. But while the call from NIPSCO corporate was better late than never, it doesn’t change the frustration Georgeff has over the company’s handling of the restoration thus far.
“I’ve been out talking to contractors in my neighborhood who’re just sitting there waiting for direction, and a couple of them said they don’t want to tell me what’s going on because it would (make me mad),” he said Monday. “The communication with NIPSCO has been terrible; you can’t get a person to talk to, so they make you go online where you know the message has been vetted and doesn’t tell you anything. There’s no personal communication.”
Ricardo Camarena lifts his neighbor Rayshawn Hackey, 6, while playing on the roots of a tree outside their homes on 26th Ave in Gary, Indiana on Wednesday, August 12, 2026. The tree was toppled during Tuesday’s storm that swept through Northwest Indiana. (Andy Lavalley/for the Post-Tribune)
Georgeff said he’s planning to go to the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission and ask it to investigate NIPSCO’s handling of the emergency because even though no one can deny that the storm was unprecedented, he gets a sense that there was no sort of plan of what to do when something happens at all.
“(NIPSCO) raised our rates and locked out its people, which caused more of them to leave, so we now have more contractors here where the trucks alone cost $500 a day. That’s not even the cost of the crews running them,” he said. “And we know that NIPSCO will get reimbursed by FEMA, so there needs to be an investigation, and I really think some heads need to roll.”
Lake Station Mayor Bill Carroll expressed his frustration with NIPSCO’s power outage response in a Sunday evening Facebook post. Carroll told the Post-Tribune Monday that he understands it’s going to take time to restore power, but he’s frustrated that Lake Station hasn’t been included on NIPSCO’s restoration estimates.
“It’s disheartening to see us not included on these lists,” he said, adding that some have said Lake Station might be grouped in with Gary, which also isn’t included. “You’re leaving out my city that I represent, the city I was elected to take care of.”
Carroll is thankful for NIPSCO’s efforts to restore power throughout the region, but he feels Lake Station is left out of communication. He called the storm a “once in a lifetime” event and said his city needs the same support as surrounding places.
“We were hit just as hard,” Carroll said. “We pay the same amount that everybody else pays. I would like to see some presence from NIPSCO in our city. … My main concern is the safety of my citizens and making sure everybody has a safe place to go.”
Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said the city is working to respond to the damage.
“I know these have been difficult and uncertain days for many across our city, and I want you to know that you are not facing this alone,” Melton said in a statement. “The City of Gary is here, and we are working every day to respond to the damage, connect residents with the resources they need, and help our community recover.”
Hammond Mayor Tom McDermott Jr. didn’t return a request for comment Monday but posted on social media that “8,497 HAMMOND RESIDENTS (are) STILL WITHOUT POWER 6 FULL DAYS AFTER THE STORM.” In a second post, he asked residents to “hang in there.”
“Watch out for your neighbors, help each other when you can, and stay strong,” McDermott wrote in the post. “For emergencies, dial 911. For non-emergencies, use Hammond 311 if you have access to the internet.
East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland also did not comment on NIPSCO’s response to outages by press time Monday. East Chicago, like Gary and Lake Station, also hasn’t been given an estimated restoration time.
Copeland has not made a public statement about the lack of restoration estimates. On Sunday, he published a statement on Facebook saying that the city has made “tremendous progress,” and about 1,600 residents are awaiting restoration.
“East Chicago, we’ve been working,” Copeland said. “Since the start of the severe storm, my focus has been where it belongs: on our residents and getting our city back up and running. … We know that if you are one of those 1,600 residents, progress doesn’t mean enough until your lights are back on. We hear you and the work continues.”
Citizens Action Coalition Program Director Ben Inskeep said it’s possible NIPSCO could request action from the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to help pay off restoration costs later. In general, utilities build in a certain allowance to pay for storms in their rates, he added.
“But for a major, unique storm like this that goes maybe significantly above and beyond their typical year-to-year storms, and especially when they’re particularly costly to repair from, utilities do have the potential to come to the IURC and ask for permission to defer the amount they’re spending to make those repairs and, in the future, recover those costs,” Inskeep said.
It’s typical for that to be added into the next rate case, Inskeep said. NIPSCO’s next rate case is in 2028.
“It really is a question of how big the cost of this is,” he said, adding that it’s too soon to tell what the impact will be on consumers. “There’s potential, too, that this type of data gets kind of baked into NIPSCO’s baseline storm data, and in future rate cases, they ask for a higher amount of storm expenses built into their rates on a year-to-year basis.”
With a storm as dangerous as the one on Aug. 11, Inskeep said it can take a while to bring power back, especially as big transmission and distribution lines go down, and they have to be repaired first. Workers then make their way into neighborhoods, he added.
Inskeep also encouraged people to let NIPSCO linemen do their work without issues so power can get back on as soon as possible.
“These folks are working very long hours in very tough conditions, and it’s very risky work, so they really deserve our gratitude,” Inskeep said. “No matter how you feel about NIPSCO executives and your NIPSCO bills, which have been too high and the service has been poor quality, we want to make sure folks can get power back as quickly as possible.”
mwilkins@chicagotribune.com; mcolias@chicagotribune.com; Michelle L. Quinn is a freelancer.