Gary, Indiana, Recovers After Weeks-Long Power Outage

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton discusses the storm’s impact, the prolonged blackout and calls to strengthen the city’s electrical infrastructure.

Democracy Now! reports on the aftermath of a severe storm in Gary, Indiana, where thousands of residents of the majority-Black city went without electricity for roughly two weeks. Gary Mayor Eddie Melton discusses the city’s recovery, questions surrounding the response by private utility NIPSCO and the need to strengthen infrastructure against increasingly severe storms.

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In Brief

• Gary is continuing to recover from a prolonged power outage that followed a powerful storm across northwest Indiana, leaving thousands of residents without electricity and disrupting businesses, fuel supplies and other essential services.
• Mayor Eddie Melton said most residents had regained power by the time of the interview, while some households continued to face outages because of damage to their homes.
• The city questioned the response of Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) after Gary was initially absent from publicly released restoration estimates, prompting concerns that the city was being overlooked.
• Melton has called for stronger and more resilient electrical infrastructure, including improvements to poles, circuitry and transformers as the region experiences more frequent and severe storms.
• The disaster comes amid longstanding economic challenges in Gary, a former major steel-producing center whose population and economic base were sharply affected by deindustrialization.
• The discussion provides the contemporary backdrop for Part 2, in which Institute of the Black World 21st Century President Dr. Ron Daniels places Gary within the longer history of Black political organizing, deindustrialization and the struggle for political power.

Watch Part 2: Democracy Now!: Ron Daniels on the 1972 Gary Convention and March on Washington

Source: Democracy Now!, “Left Behind and Overlooked”: Indiana Energy Company Left Majority-Black Gary Powerless for Weeks, August 31, 2026.