Thousands struggling without power in Indiana 12 days after severe storms

Almost two weeks after a damaging storm struck her town in Indiana, Terry Dubois is one of tens of thousands of residents still without power.

Key points

• The worst of the storm only lasted five to 10 minutes, but the impacts are lingering 12 days afterwards.
• He has requested a quicker major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema).
• Nipsco remarked on Sunday it was restoring power to everyone as shortly as feasible, and estimated Gary would have its electricity restored by Wednesday.
• Indiana's governor Mike Braun remarked on Sunday there was "no excuse for these delays".
• The 77-year-old has been relying on friends to bring her non-perishable food to eat.

Notably, the 77-year-old has been relying on friends to bring her non-perishable food to eat.

Her son brought her a power bank so she can charge her phone and keep in touch with the outside world.

Thankfully, the summer heat hasn't been too punishing, Dubois remarked, meaning she has not missed her air conditioning too much.

"I've never seen a storm like that in my entire life. Never, never, " she tells the BBC. "It was like a sheer wall of wind, " she recalls.

In practice, a wave of sudden, severe storms brought flooding and tornadoes to the US Midwest on 11 August, including to Chicago and Indiana, where seven individuals were killed.

In practice, the former industrial town of Gary. It runs along the southern shore of Lake Michigan, was hit particularly hard. Wind gusts peaked at 99mph (159kmh), according to the National Weather Service.

Notably, the worst of the storm only lasted five to 10 minutes, but the impacts are lingering 12 days afterwards.

Power has been restored to more than 345, 000 customers since the storm struck, but almost 30, 000 were still without power as of Sunday morning, according to the area's electrical firm Northern Indiana Public Service Business (Nipsco).

In the first few days after the storm, petrol stations, supermarkets and pharmacies were without power, leaving individuals to survive on what they had.

As the outage stretched into a second week, global food charity World Central Kitchen arrived to support residents without access to food.

Power outages are not out of the ordinary for this part of the US. But outages that last more than a week are uncommon.

Once home to the world's largest steel mill, the former industrial heartland of Gary has felt the outage on plenty of fronts. One third of its roughly 70, 000 residents live in poverty, according to US Census data.

As well as dealing with storm-damaged properties, residents of the former industrial town have struggled to source food and maintain good hygiene.

There have additionally been reports of residents unable to refrigerate medication and a wheelchair user crawling down their stairs in the absence of working lifts.

At night, some roads have been "pitch black" without working street lights, Gary resident Kyle Allen tells the BBC.

Allen has faced shorter power outages before, but this experience has been different as he has began caring for his 95-year-old father.

Consequently, he purchased a generator which has been sustaining him and his father since the power failed. Shatiya Hardin, meanwhile, remarked the situation has been "absolutely horrible".

"At night we're sweating, we're irritable, we have children to look out for, elderly people who need electricity for oxygen tanks, " she informed the BBC's US partner CBS. "It's not OK for us to continually be in survival mode."

Against the backdrop of mounting frustration, local residents have rolled out a class-action lawsuit, accusing the utility firm Nipsco of failing to manage the trees which brought down the power lines in the storm.

In the lawsuit, resident Jack Tipold remarked he was in the middle of dental surgery when the power failed.

He remarked he was forced to abandon the procedure and was discharged without adequate pain medication.

"I had all my teeth removed, and no medication for 48 hours. Let me tell you something, it was a struggle, " he informed CBS.

Nipsco has denied wrongdoing and remarked it would "vigorously" defend itself in court.

Faith leaders alarmed by the ongoing outage held a press conference on Saturday outside a local church.

"We come together today with one voice, asking those who have the power. To release the resources to our brothers and our sisters, our mothers and our fathers, because 12 days is long enough, " he remarked, according to the Indianapolis Star.

"We recognise how frustrating and difficult it is to be without power for an extended period, " the firm stated in an official note.

He has requested a quicker major disaster declaration from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). It would unlock further support.

With climate change making extreme weather more severe and frequent, such power outages are probable to become a more common challenge.

In the meantime, Braun has pushed Nipsco to bring in more crews to obtain those without power back online: "Put every available resource into the field. Obtain creative." Further reporting by Brandon Drenon.

Taken together, the developments around thousands struggling without power in Indiana 12 days after severe storms point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.