Some of the communities hardest hit by the Aug. 11 derecho — including Gary, Portage and Munster — have experienced intermittent power outages in the past few days, leading to headaches for residents and businesses still recovering from storm damage.
Saturday morning several businesses along the west side of Munster’s Calumet Avenue corridor, including Nat’s Barber Shop, Dutch Bros Coffee, Big City Cheesesteaks and Parlor Doughnuts, reported all or partial power outages, and it was impacting nearby neighborhoods as well.
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“Over the past two days, NIPSCO crews promptly responded to outages or momentary service interruptions in Indiana affecting approximately 1,700 customers in Gary, 1,300 customers in Michigan City and 2,330 customers in Portage,” the utility said in a Saturday statement. “Our crews made necessary repairs and power has been restored to all affected customers.”
But as of 4 p.m. Saturday, NIPSCO’s outage tracker still listed 433 customers without power, including 105 in Gary, 79 in Munster, and 42 in Lake Station.
Parlor Doughnuts co-owner Marissa Barnes said her employees discovered the partial outage when they arrived at 4:30 a.m. and found that only half the equipment was working.
“Thank God for my electrician,” Barnes said. “He’s texting me back and forth at 5:30 a.m. while I’m freaking out. He mentioned it sounds they’re single phasing whatever that means. The good news is we were able to move all of our (perishable) products into one freezer and walk-in cooler and … keep that on. But if the power surges, those pieces of equipment are at risk.”
Barnes said she never received any kind of outage alert from NIPSCO. It was the second straight day she’d had to deal with an outage as Parlor’s Crown Point location had no power on Friday.
The combined frustration compelled Barnes to file a complaint with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on Saturday.
“After their customer service representatives were giving me little to no information, I figured out how to put in complaint,” Barnes said. “I’m sure it will fall on deaf ears, but I did want to put something in case we have equipment issues. I also included a little bit in complaint how frustrating it is to have the instability because we can have another outage at any given point. It makes it hard to purchase perishable items and make decision to whether to order a truck or not.”
Barnes said employees are in limbo due to the outages as well.
“We’re in the boat where we have 10 people working every single day, who are relying on the hours,” Barnes said. “That’s what really bothers me the most. They’ve got a plan for the day, rent payments due, and now they are no longer able to work.
Portage Mayor Austin Bonta echoed similar frustration with the utility in a series of Facebook updates on Friday, where he noted city hall and multiple city government buildings were experiencing on again off again power issues. Even with the unpredictable outages, he said the Police Department and Fire Department were able to respond to multiple fire calls.
“We appreciate the NIPSCO workers trying to resolve whatever this new problem is now, but NIPSCO also, as a company, must explain fully not just went wrong with our power in Portage today, but transparently explain to our residents what they are doing to ensure steady power consistently in our city going into the future,” he added.
“Two weeks without power was unacceptable, and having unpredictable power is also not acceptable,” he wrote. “I will do all that I can to get this clarity and consistency from this company that has such impact on our lives.”
Bonta said his city’s experience since the Aug. 11 storm has on strengthened a position he took last summer — that some members of the IURC should be accountable to voters as the current system isn’t working.
“Just as our local trash, stormwater, and sewer rates have to be approved by city council members who are elected by their constituents, it makes sense to me that, on the state level of things, things like the electric rate across big stretches of our state would be best handled with at least some elected commissioners,” Bonta said. “… every candidate running for the state senate or the state house of representatives should be able to give you a serious and clear answer on where they stand on this very important issue. If you meet a candidate from any political party running for one of those two jobs, do not let them get away with claiming they have no position on this issue. They do and should tell you.”
On Thursday, about 1,700 people near 25th Avenue and Chase Street lost power in Gary, Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said in a statement. It was just over a week after much of the city regained power following Aug. 11 storms.
Melton said NIPSCO never provided him with the information on the cause of the outages or when they would be resolved. He echoed his call from earlier this week of making Gary’s power grid more resilient.
Barnes said she hopes more pressure is applied to NIPSCO from different parties.
“They need to take these issues more seriously,” Barnes said.”They’re out here upgrading my gas meter in Valparaiso, while people in Gary don’t have power in 100 degree heat.”