KVIG Informative

Thousands of families in northwest Indiana are throwing out spoiled food, lining up for hot meals and hunting for a place to charge a phone — more than a week after a storm hit, and with no firm date for when the lights come back on.

Tens of thousands of residents in northwest Indiana entered a ninth day without power Thursday after a deadly storm on August 11 toppled trees and power lines across the region, according to the Associated Press.

Gary’s public school district, which serves about 4,300 students, started its academic year in early August but has been closed since August 13 and remained shut through at least Friday, with officials citing downed trees and unrepaired storm damage as ongoing safety hazards.

Portage Township Schools canceled its planned August 12 start of classes entirely because of the storm and is now targeting an August 25 launch for the school year, more than two weeks behind schedule.

Some residents in East Chicago, Indiana, who had their power restored found it knocked out again days later, according to local reports, as utility crews worked through a backlog of downed lines across multiple jurisdictions with different service territories and different repair timelines.

Community members turned to social media and local mutual-aid networks to locate open laundromats and working Wi-Fi, while volunteers distributed food, diapers and cleaning supplies to residents in Gary’s lower-income neighborhoods, where the outage has hit hardest.

Researchers who study emergency response say school closures during extended outages carry outsized consequences for lower-income families specifically, who are less likely to have backup options like generators, hotel stays or reliable childcare to bridge the gap.

The storm also triggered flash flooding in central Ohio the same week, with emergency crews rescuing stranded motorists in Columbus — a reminder that this stretch of extreme weather did not end with the initial storm, even as northwest Indiana is still, more than a week later, just trying to get the power back on.