Thousands in northwest Indiana still without power nearly two weeks after storm

Nearly two weeks after a powerful storm ravaged Indiana, Terry Dubois and countless others remain without electricity. The 77-year-old resident of Gary, situated on Lake Michigan's southern shore, has been relying on friends to bring her non-perishable meals and her son for a power bank to charge her phone. Dubois expressed astonishment at the storm's severity, describing it as a "sheer wall of wind."

The storm, which brought tornadoes and flooding across the US Midwest on August 11th, caused seven fatalities in Indiana. Gary, known for its former steel mill, was particularly hard-hit, with winds reaching 99mph according to the National Weather Service. Despite power being restored to over 345,000 customers, nearly 30,000 still lack electricity as of Sunday morning.

Food charity World Central Kitchen has been providing meals to those without access to food, but the prolonged outage has created numerous challenges. Gary's poverty rate of one-third of its 70,000 residents has made the situation particularly difficult, with residents struggling to maintain hygiene, refrigerate medication, and in some cases, even take showers.

Gary resident Kyle Allen, who has been caring for his 95-year-old father, has had to rely on a generator to power his home. Meanwhile, local faith leaders have expressed growing frustration, filing a class-action lawsuit against utility company Nipsco, accusing it of failing to manage the fallen trees that caused the power outages.

Governor Mike Braun has called for a faster major disaster declaration from FEMA, urging Nipsco to deploy additional crews to expedite the restoration process.