Overview
- A powerful derecho on Aug. 11 produced near‑100 mph winds and tornadoes that knocked out service to roughly 375,000 NIPSCO customers and killed several people.
- NIPSCO reported on Aug. 25–26 that crews restored power to about 99% of affected customers and said most remaining outages stemmed from privately owned equipment or non‑storm issues.
- Thousands of linemen, contractors and mutual‑aid crews worked for weeks to rebuild poles and cut vegetation while safety incidents, including a NIPSCO vehicle struck by gunfire, temporarily slowed work.
- Residents and leaders in Gary, a predominantly Black, lower‑income city, complained of lengthy outages that caused spoiled food, medical risks and business losses and have filed a class‑action suit alleging poor vegetation management.
- Indiana Governor Mike Braun directed regulators to seek an IURC investigation into NIPSCO's preparedness and use of funds, a probe that could examine spending, tree trimming practices and whether recovery was equitable.