NIPSCO Under Fire As Thousands Continue To Sit In The Dark - Page 2
- Thousands in northwest Indiana still without power weeks after storms, frustrating residents and officials.
- Damage to utility poles and vegetation issues compounding NIPSCO's recovery efforts, drawing criticism for slow progress.
- Political fallout likely to continue even after power is restored, as NIPSCO faces scrutiny for its handling of the situation.
NIPSCO Under Fire As Thousands Continue To Sit In The Dark — And Tony Katz Isn’t Buying the Excuses
Two weeks without power in the middle of summer isn’t a hiccup — it’s a failure, and Tony Katz isn’t letting NIPSCO off easy for it. “That frustration being expressed… it’s just not happening fast enough,” Katz said flatly on 93 WIBC, laying out a storm recovery effort in northwest Indiana that’s dragged on far longer than residents were told to expect.
The numbers explain why people are furious. Storms and flooding that tore through Indiana more than a week ago caused what Inside Indiana Business editor Gerry Dick called billions of dollars in damage — no firm figure yet, but the destruction speaks for itself. In northwest Indiana, roughly 10,000 homes and individuals were still without power some two weeks after the initial storms hit, according to Dick.
Governor Mike Braun has already put NIPSCO on notice, telling the utility it needs to “step it up.” Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, went further, calling NIPSCO’s own timeline to restore everyone by Tuesday “unacceptable.” Translation: even local officials think the utility is moving too slow on its own promises.
Katz pressed Dick on whether the damage is really just downed poles, or whether NIPSCO itself is the problem. Dick’s answer: it’s both. Hundreds of utility poles need to be replaced before wires can even go back up, and vegetation issues in harder-hit areas are compounding the delay. NIPSCO says it’s doing everything it can. Dick suggested the political fallout won’t end when the lights come back on — “I think you’ll see the fallout from this continue,” he said, with NIPSCO now “the subject of a lot of criticism” for its handling of the whole mess.
Katz didn’t stop at NIPSCO. He turned the same skepticism on Hamilton County’s timeline to replace the storm-damaged Hazel Dell Bridge, calling the county’s two-year estimate flatly unacceptable. “Four months, that’s what it takes to rebuild the bridge, and it shouldn’t take that long,” Katz said, adding pointedly that he’s speaking for himself, not his guest — and that anyone in county government who thinks two years is fine “has to immediately be pushed to the side.”
Meanwhile, there’s brighter news on the economic front: SK Hynix’s $4 billion semiconductor plant in West Lafayette breaks ground Thursday, expected to bring roughly 1,000 direct jobs — and as many as 7,000 counting suppliers and construction — while planting Indiana firmly in the AI supply chain race against China. Unlike the backlash around data centers, Dick said the project is largely being welcomed, with only modest pushback from area residents.
For northwest Indiana families still sitting in the dark, though, the storm story isn’t about groundbreakings. It’s about accountability — and Katz made clear he thinks NIPSCO and Hamilton County both have some explaining to do.
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Hear Tony Katz break it down live weekdays on 93.1 WIBC, or catch the full segment on-demand.
Listen to the “NIPSCO Under Fire As Thousands Continue To Sit In The Dark” discussion in full here:
