One week after severe storms swept through Northwest Indiana, frustration and exhaustion are mounting across Hammond, where many residents remain in the dark and feel increasingly neglected by regional restoration efforts.
In response to the prolonged outages, Hammond Mayor Thomas M. McDermott Jr. issued a statement calling on Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) to accelerate its work in the city, detailing extensive municipal measures taken to remove obstacles for utility crews.
According to McDermott, city crews worked around the clock to reopen Hammond’s roadways by Thursday immediately following the storm, clearing massive amounts of fallen trees and debris.
"We moved that quickly for a reason," McDermott said in a statement shared on the Go Hammond Facebook page. "We hoped that by clearing our roadways faster than other communities, NIPSCO crews would be able to move easily through Hammond and prioritize the reenergization of our neighborhoods."
To further speed up the process, the city hired outside contracted tree-removal crews from Mississippi and Florida to assist municipal Public Works teams. Those workers focused on pulling fallen trees off homes and clearing branches entangled in power lines.
"With the enormous restoration effort NIPSCO is facing across Northwest Indiana, expecting their crews to also handle all of this tree removal simply isn’t realistic. So Hammond took care of it ourselves," McDermott said. "We hoped that clearing our streets, bringing in additional manpower, and removing these obstacles would light a fire under NIPSCO and help get Hammond reenergized faster."
Despite the city's efforts, large pockets of Hammond continue to wait for power to return, sparking widespread resident anger over summer heat, spoiled food, and slow progress. McDermott emphasized that local infrastructure is cleared and accessible, leaving the remaining repairs in the utility's hands.
"Hammond has done its part," McDermott said. "Hammond is ready. Now we need the power back."
In an update letter sent to McDermott on Tuesday, Aug. 18, NIPSCO stated that restoration progress continues across Hammond and its broader service territory, but pointed to recent complications that slowed recovery efforts.
According to the utility, an overnight fire set back operations in both Hammond and East Chicago, knocking out power to an additional 4,900 customers—including 2,000 in Hammond and 2,900 in East Chicago.
NIPSCO said crews are actively working to safely restore service to that area, operating under an Incident Command Structure to guide its broader restoration plan.
"We are asking all customers, cities and towns to allow us to execute this plan which will best allow safe customer restoration as quickly as possible," the utility said, adding that additional updates regarding specific restoration timelines for Hammond are expected later this week.
