Grocery store shelves have been stripped bare for days. Children who had just started school haven’t seen their classrooms in a week. Insulin has spoiled in warm refrigerators, and people who depend on oxygen cannot power their tanks.
The electricity has been out for 10 days in Gary, Ind., since deadly storms ripped through the city, knocking down trees and power lines. Residents said they were growing increasingly desperate on Friday, even as another round of heavy rain was on the way.
“Every day I’m crying,” Renita Theus, 41, said Friday outside of her darkened apartment, where her car remained trapped under a fallen tree. “It’s hot in the house. I toss and turn and can’t sleep. I walked to the dollar store and they’re all out of candles and batteries.”
Gary, where one-third of residents live in poverty, was hit especially hard by storms on Aug. 11 that caused flooding and havoc throughout Northern Indiana.
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. said on Friday that 43,400 of its customers remain without power in the region. Service is expected to be restored to Gary by Tuesday, the company said, calling it a “monumental undertaking.”
Officials warned that cleanup would likely take months. “It’s just widespread devastation throughout the city of Gary,” said Larry E. Tillman, the chief of the fire department.
City officials said that donations of money and supplies have poured into Gary since the storm. Lowe’s sent a truck with hundreds of buckets and cleanup kits; food trucks have set up in neighborhoods to feed hungry residents; a medical facility equipped a bus to treat people with health needs.
One company drove around handing out hundreds of tarps to residents so that they could cover damaged roofs and prevent even more rain from getting inside their homes.
Mike Curtis, a 63-year-old retired truck driver, was busy on Friday sawing apart fallen trees behind his garage. He lives with his wife in a brick bungalow and has been without power since the storm.
“I’ve been in Gary since I was four years old,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Amy Graff contributed reporting.
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