The situation remains dire in northwest Indiana, as some residents living in Gary are now going on 12 days without power after devastating storms earlier this month.
With those individuals going on nearly two weeks without electricity, local groups are coming together to offer relief during this time of need.
The line for help spanned more than a mile outside Tree of Life Missionary Baptist Church in Gary with people waiting in their cars to receive aid on Saturday.
India Person is among those in desperate need of food, water, and everyday household items and cleaning items for her family.
“It’s all we can do so we’re out trying to get things we need for our kids,” she said.
She and others said they have been struggling trying to get by without power.
“It’s just horrible we’re sleeping in the dark, we’re spending too much money right now basically trying to survive,” said Sandra Sutton, Gary resident.
“We’re hanging in there,” said Ciara Smith, Gary resident. “We’re sticking together, we’re making it work.”
Volunteers handed out cases of water, paper towels, and boxes of supplies to families. Pastor Eric Boone leads the congregation at Tree of Life in Gary.
“We have not lost hope and lost our fight,” he said. “Gary, Indiana is where I’m born and raised, and it’s a city that’s made of steel and I’m letting them know that no matter what hit us, it may knock us down, but it won’t knock us out.”
His church teamed up with groups and organizations to provide support.
“We know there’s an outage, there’s no electricity in many homes, but we still have power—we still got the power to love, we still got the power to give, and we still got the power to serve,” said Pastor Michael Watson.
The mayor of Gary told NBC Chicago every block has been devastated. They’ve conducted their assessments and are now waiting on NIPSCO to do its part to get the lights back on.
As of Saturday morning, 17,000 customers are without power, according to the mayor.
“They’ve identified some source outages that hopefully they’ll be able to pick up several thousands of folks once these couple of source outages are fixed,” said Mayor Eddie Melton.
The mayor told NBC Chicago 400 linemen are in Gary trying to restore the power. NIPSCO estimates services will be restored by Tuesday night at the very latest. The mayor is pushing for Sunday.
