Spurrier drives to Illinois for ice to keep insulin usable
Northern Indiana Public Service Co., the area’s sole utility, said its crews have been working nonstop to restore power after the storms. As of Wednesday morning, 85,000 customers were still without electricity more than a week after the storms tore through the region.
The utility has restored service to 285,000 customers since August 11, but the remaining outages are concentrated in some of the hardest-hit communities. In Gary, more than 22,000 customers were still without power. The utility said residents there have lined up at community centers for hot meals and phone charging.
In Portage, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, Spurrier said the outage has forced him to drive to Illinois to buy ice to keep his insulin at a usable temperature. Spurrier has diabetes.
Spurrier said he is fortunate to have a generator to power the home he shares with his girlfriend and daughter. The generator consumes about $75 worth of gasoline a day, and all the food in his refrigerator has spoiled, forcing the family to rely on nonperishables like soup.
For households like Spurrier’s, the restoration timeline is measured in fuel costs, spoiled groceries, and trips to neighboring states for ice.
MSI previously reported that the same storm system had killed at least two people across the Midwest on August 12 and that by August 17, the death toll in Indiana had risen to seven as the storms extended to the mid-Atlantic.