Tens of thousands of residents in northwest Indiana, mostly in Lake County, remain without power nine days after an Aug. 11 storm downed trees and lines, with full restoration in Gary not expected until Tuesday. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. says it has restored power to 306,500 customers but 68,000 remained without it as of Thursday.
Residents described spoiled food, generator fumes, and reliance on community volunteers for meals, diapers and cleaning supplies, while some in East Chicago who briefly regained power lost it again. A community resilience researcher warned that prolonged outages compound health risks, from carbon monoxide poisoning to failing medical devices, as separate flash flooding in Columbus, Ohio required emergency rescues, including of a 12-year-old swept off a bridge.
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