MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
More than 10,000 people in Northwest Indiana are still without electricity two weeks after severe storms knocked out power for nearly 400,000 people. From member station WBEC, Michael Puente reports.
MICHAEL PUENTE, BYLINE: Diana Washington is 68 years old and lives alone in Gary, Indiana.
DIANA WASHINGTON: And I never, never, never seen it like this.
PUENTE: Washington attended an event at a Gary park over the weekend where volunteers handed out water, food and toiletries to those in need. When she's at home, Washington says she doesn't have much - just a few candles and flashlights. Her neighborhood and city streets are pitch-black at night, making traveling challenging. But Washington doesn't feel scared. The grandmother to eight and great-grandmother to 23 says her children stop by to make sure she doesn't go without.
WASHINGTON: I got family here. They keep bringing me ice and stuff, but all the stuff in the refrigerator and all the - half of the stuff in the freezer's gone.
PUENTE: Like many here in the blue-collar, predominantly Black city, purchasing a gas generator, which can be as much as $600, is out of reach. Washington says she isn't sure why there is a delay in getting power restored.
WASHINGTON: Everybody to blame because the trees should have been cut down 20 years ago. The mayor's doing as much as he can.
PUENTE: The area's utility is NIPSCO, short for Northern Indiana Public Service Company. In a statement, the utility said the storm that hit was the worst outage event in the company's history.
WASHINGTON: I'm assuming NIPSCO is doing what they supposed to do. But it seems like Gary is always last, and I don't understand that part. And we were the worst-hit.
PUENTE: NIPSCO expects to have most of Gary's customers still without power restored by midnight Tuesday. The state's governor is urging the company to speed things up. But 70-year-old Walter Jones isn't so sure that's going to happen. He's worried Gary may be last.
WALTER JONES: Now we're at the 11% mark. I'm wondering if Gary's going to wind up being the 1%-ers in this. And that's not cool.
PUENTE: NIPSCO is facing a class-action lawsuit for not doing enough to prevent the power outage by cutting down trees and other vegetation.
For NPR News, I'm Michael Puente in Gary, Indiana.
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