“The storm was severe, but our residents deserve answers about preparedness, infrastructure, reliability, communication, and the prolonged restoration of power,” Gary Mayor Eddie Melton said in a statement released Tuesday backing a new state investigation into Northern Indiana Public Service Company. “In Gary, and throughout NWI, some residents were without electricity for two weeks.”
Melton called the independent probe the right step toward systemic change, noting he has directly communicated the city’s priorities to utility leadership.
“An independent, fact-based investigation is the right step to determine what happened, what could have been done differently, and what must change moving forward,” Melton added.
The mayor's remarks follow a unanimous vote Tuesday by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to formally examine NIPSCO’s “practices and procedures” during the Aug. 11 derecho. The historic storm cut power to nearly 375,000 customers across Northern Indiana.
The state review was prompted by an Aug. 24 directive from Gov. Mike Braun instructing the Office of Utility Consumer Counselor to petition for a probe while roughly 10,000 residents remained in the dark. NIPSCO indicated in state filings that it does not oppose the petition.
Under the IURC order, NIPSCO must submit:
- Municipal outage data and restoration timelines
- Pre-storm predictive weather modeling
- Assessments of grid infrastructure damage
- Staffing deployments, mutual-aid records, and customer communications
- Coordination logs with local municipalities and emergency personnel
The inquiry also follows a petition by U.S. Rep. Frank J. Mrvan asking federal regulators at FERC to investigate whether NIPSCO met federal electric reliability standards.
