NIPSCO Left Gary Off Its Storm Map — Then Apologized Under a $1M-a-Day Fine Warning

Gary City Hall and Lake County Superior Courthouse. Photo by Nyttend / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Gary City Hall and Lake County Superior Courthouse. Photo by Nyttend / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Four Lake County cities never appeared on the restoration map NIPSCO published after the August derecho. The company's president apologized for that blank at the Statehouse — while a $1 million-a-day vegetation fine and a federal class action still hang over the same storm.

NIPSCO president and chief operating officer Vince Parisi told the Interim Study Committee on Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications on Sept. 29 that Gary, Portage, Lake Station, and Griffith were left off an early published restoration plan not because crews had deprioritized them, but because damage assessments were incomplete and the utility would not publish estimates it could not substantiate. "We should have communicated that more effectively to our customers at that time and I'm sorry for any confusion that caused," Parisi said, according to Capital B Gary and the Chicago Sun-Times.

That apology was the company's second on the map omission. NiSource utilities group president Melody Birmingham had already apologized at an earlier press conference. For Gary households that went two to three weeks without power — longer than many neighboring towns — the blank on the public plan is what still stings.

What the map left blank

Parisi told lawmakers Gary took the brunt of the damage and finished with more outages than any other Northwest Indiana community. NIPSCO reported about 1,500 poles damaged in the Aug. 11 derecho, versus an average of about 90 in each of the five prior storms the company cited. Poles designed for roughly 55 mph winds met gusts near 100 mph, he said. Vegetation management "wasn't the issue," Parisi testified.

Gary residents who made the trip to Indianapolis disagreed. Sherry Smith, a 15-year homeowner, told Capital B that NIPSCO had never trimmed trees at her property despite a large company pole and heavy canopy. Carolyn McCrady, who rode down with roughly 20 Northwest Indiana neighbors, told the committee people in Gary are "angry because our bills are too high and scared also that the next storm will cause as much or even more destruction," especially heading into winter without generators.

Fewer linemen, more contractors, same ratepayers

United Steelworkers Local 12775 president Ryan Baker testified that NIPSCO is down to 183 linemen — fewer than at any point in the past 15 years — and has lost about 50 since 2020. Crews and substation electricians often cannot be paired on the same site, he said, stretching restoration. Parisi told lawmakers the company uses contract crews at times "for affordability reasons." Baker said contractors usually cost more, with those costs passed to ratepayers.

Gary Mayor Eddie Melton, a former NIPSCO employee, asked lawmakers to require statewide restoration estimates for every community so city halls are not left guessing. Melton said Gary has cleared 75% to 80% of an estimated 280,000 cubic yards of tree debris at roughly $8 million — with residents still unable to afford trees sitting on roofs and at least one small restaurant reporting nearly $19,000 in storm losses. State Rep. Carolyn Jackson, whose district includes parts of Hammond, asked why ComEd customers across State Line Road regained power far sooner when "the storm was just as bad over there as it was here."

$1 million a day — and Tipold still in Hammond federal court

Committee discussion kept returning to vegetation management. ReliabilityFirst's Brian Thiry told the panel mismanagement of vegetation near lines can draw Indiana penalties of up to $1 million a day, with utilities facing inspections no more than 18 months apart, TheStatehouseFile.com reported. Chair Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, opened by pointing to poor communication and asked members not to litigate the separate IURC probe in the hearing room. No fine has been imposed in public reporting through early October.

Separately, Tipold v. NIPSCO — a proposed class action accusing the utility of negligent vegetation management — was moved at NIPSCO's request from Porter County into U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in Hammond. Parisi said NIPSCO's internal storm review would finish by Thanksgiving and that the company is hiring a third-party investigator. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission's formal Cause 46453 probe into post-derecho restoration practices remains open; Hoosier Enquirer covered the docket's opening separately.

Before testimony, the interim committee unanimously recommended next-session legislation that would require IURC utilities to keep annual written emergency-restoration procedures and order the IURC to field-audit vegetation management every other year. No bill was filed at the hearing itself.

An apology fills a blank on a map. It does not erase two-to-three-week outages in Gary, a $1 million-a-day fine statute still on the books, or a class action now sitting in Hammond federal court. Lake County ratepayers watching winter approach will score the next storm on those ledgers — not on another Statehouse "sorry."

Sources: Capital B Gary / Chicago Sun-Times (Sept. 30–Oct. 1, 2026); TheStatehouseFile.com (Sept. 30, 2026); IURC Cause 46453 order (Sept. 22, 2026). Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.