Some homes and businesses in Gary, Indiana, still without power 13 days after storms

(AP) — Things became all-too familiar for Kimya Williams after storms rumbled through Gary, Indiana, earlier this month leaving big chunks of the mostly-Black city in the dark for two weeks. The power outage reminded the 50-year-old of what she experienced in New Orleans in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina knocked out electricity to many. Williams’ home was one of more than 38,300 homes and businesses in Gary to lose power from the Aug.

She initially tried to stick it out and stay put, but the darkness got the best of her and Williams’ left for Indianapolis to stay with her children. It was too dark,” Williams told The Associated Press Monday. On Monday, one of the poorest and blackest cities in America still had no power.

The day before, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton called the pace of restoration “unacceptable.” “We’re at day 12 and 12 days is too long for families to be without power, 12 days is too long for parents to worry about their children and for businesses to lose revenue,” Melton said in an update to the community. Northern Indiana Public Service Co., the area’s electricity provider, said Monday that more than 370,000 customers lost power and that more than 364,000 have had their service restored. The remaining customers should have power back by Tuesday.

“Our teams are assigned to outages large and small, and we remain committed to reaching every affected customer in all of our communities,” the company said. “No outage is being overlooked, and no customer will be left behind as we continue this restoration effort.” As the Indiana residents awaited restoration of their service, roughly 34,000 customers in the majority Black city of Memphis were still without power as of late Monday afternoon, after storms swept through the city on Saturday, according to information on Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s website. The utility said that figure represents less than 8% of its customers.

Some residents were comparing the situation to Gary. Lawsuit filed after long outages A resident in neighboring Porter County filed a lawsuit in state court last week accusing NIPSCO of negligence and requesting a class action for residents of Indiana who have suffered as a result. The complaint said the utility company failed to maintain trees and other vegetation hazards growing near its power lines, a failure that “predictably” result…