The Lights Are Back On in Gary, Indiana

On August 11, a storm with winds near 100 mph swept across Indiana, knocking out power for 370,000 people. In Gary, a city of 70,000 where three-quarters of residents are Black, more than half of utility customers lost electricity.

Other towns lit up within a day or two; Gary waited two weeks. The mayor said Gary wasn't even on the utility's restoration schedule at first, and was only added after the city pushed back.

Do wealthier neighborhoods get lights first?

NIPSCO denied neglecting Gary, but residents felt differently. Seniors were trapped in walk-up apartments with no fans, food rotted and grew maggots, and one man drove an hour each day to Chicago to charge his ventilator.

Gary's median household income is $40,000, and nearly 20% of residents are 65 or older. People spent their last dollars on gas to drive on unlit roads full of debris looking for supplies. Relief was first-come, first-served, with one package per household, so neighbors couldn't pick up extras for shut-ins.

The city's infrastructure had been crumbling for decades as deindustrialization shrank its population and tax base. NIPSCO has a monopoly, charges the highest rates in the state, and just got approved for a rate hike to upgrade equipment — upgrades that evidently didn't reach Gary.

Climate change is making such storms more frequent and severe, and experts say utilities need to plan for these low-probability events. Last week, Indiana's governor requested an investigation into NIPSCO's tree maintenance, and the president approved a major-disaster declaration, finally bringing federal aid.

Power is back now, but refrigerators are empty, insulin prescriptions were just refilled, and the bills aren't paid. The episode is a reminder: in a disaster, the poorest, Blackest residents are again first to be left in the dark.