Getting no help: Thousands in Gary, Indiana, still without power nearly 2 weeks after storms
GARY, Ind.— The power outages caused by storms that roared through the region nearly two weeks ago have one resident of this rust-belt city literally gasping for air.Joetta Walker, who is 73 and suffers from asthma, uses a nebulizer to help her breathe.
But right now it’s a useless piece of machinery and she’s had to rely on an inhaler to survive.“I have a nebulizer where I need to take breathing treatments,” Walker told NBC News in an interview at her sweltering home.“I can’t do that without the electricity.” Lifelong Gary, Ind., resident Joetta Walker, 73, holds her nebulizer.Selina Guevara / NBC NewsWalker said the inhaler doesn’t give her the same level of relief.“I wheeze,” Walker said and demonstrated.
“You hear it now because I get too hot.”No place in Indiana has suffered more as a result of those Aug.11 storms more than this mostly-Black city on southern tip of Lake Michigan, best known as the hometown of Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5.
As of Monday, more than 8,600 customers were still waiting to get their power restored, most of them in Gary, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) reported on its website.Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said he spoke with President Donald Trump and he told him “explicitly that we needed help, that we needed resources.”Melton said he asked Trump to sign an executive order “and move this thing forward, so folks can start getting back to work, and we start restoring Gary back to normal.”“He said that he was going to do all that he can,” Melton said of Trump.Melton said he also met with Indiana Sen.Jim Banks, a Republican.
He hopes power for residents of his city will be fully restored by Tuesday.“I believe a good chunk of that will be restored today, and hopefully 100% will be restored tomorrow,” he said.Melton’s hopeful forecast came a day after he ripped NIPSCO for failing to completely restore electricity to his city.
“Twelve days is too long for families to be wi...