Frustration and exhaustion deepen as some Indiana residents endure weeklong power outages after deadly storms | CNN

Tens of thousands of people in northwest Indiana remain without power more than a week after deadly storms leveled trees and knocked down power lines across the region. Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said crews were working nonstop to fix the outages, but 75,000 customers still lacked electricity by late afternoon, mostly in Lake County next to the Illinois border. They included more than 20,000 customers in Gary, where residents lined up again at community centers for hot meals and a place to charge phones. The latest news for Gary wasn’t good: Full restoration is not expected there until August 25, NIPSCO said. Roughly 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles need to be repaired or replaced in Gary as a result of the storm, which carried winds of 99 mph (159 kilometers per hour), said Melody Birmingham, an executive at NIPSCO’s parent company. Birmingham acknowledged the “real burden” of losing perishable food and people living for days without air conditioning after a “historic storm” that initially left 300,000 customers in the dark. “These aren’t simple repairs,” Birmingham said at a news conference. “These are systems that are being rebuilt.” Jerem