Crime & Law

Class Action Lawsuit Targets Indiana Power Authority Amid Ongoing Outages From Damaging Storms

Thousands of Northwest Indiana residents affected by this month’s damaging downpours and ongoing power outages have joined a class action lawsuit targeting the state’s largest power utility, claiming it neglected “foreseeable and preventable” issues prior to the storms.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Kenneth J. Allen’s law group, seeks to hold Northern Indiana Public Service Co., known as NIPSCO,  to account for what he called “unnecessary outages … that could and should have been prevented.”

“I think that this case will demonstrate to NIPSCO the immense power that all of its customers have when standing together,” Allen said at a press conference Friday. “And we want and we will hold them accountable … for the foreseeable and preventable harm caused by outages.”

Spokespersons for NIPSCO did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday morning.

NIPSCO has called the destruction from deadly Aug. 11 storms “unprecedented and widespread” and said crews from around the country have arrived to help repair downed wires, broken poles and damaged equipment.

In Gary, Indiana, schools remained closed after storms downed trees and power lines. Residents turned to social media to find open laundromats and working Wi-Fi, while others sought food, diapers and cleaning wipes for low-income neighbors.

According to NIPSCO, 68,000 customers were still without power as of Thursday morning, the majority of them in Lake County beside the Illinois border. The utility said it has restored power to 306,500 others since Aug. 11. But power is not expected to be fully restored until Tuesday in some places, including Gary.

Illinois, which is served by a different utility, recovered sooner from the same storm, but Melody Birmingham, an executive at NIPSCO’s parent company, said that part of Illinois had fewer trees and different infrastructure, including some power lines that may have been buried.

“No storm is created equal,” she said. “No service territory is the same.”

Allen said NIPSCO should have exercised reasonable care in executing a vegetation management program to help prevent downed trees and other plants from causing outages. Instead of managing that growth proactively, Allen’s attorneys said NIPSCO instead “simply reacts” after the damage has already been done.

According to Allen, some Indiana residents who’ve joined the lawsuit had emergency surgeries postponed due to the power outages.

Roughly 300 poles and 44 power transmission poles need to be repaired or replaced in Gary as a result of the storm, which carried winds of 99 miles per hour, Birmingham said.

Birmingham acknowledged the “real burden” of losing perishable food and people living for days without air conditioning after a “historic storm” that initially left 300,000 customers in the dark.

Allen said NIPSCO may blame an “untoward weather event,” but he said similar events are possible every year.

“They have to be accountable to the people they’ve harmed … but most importantly they have to change,” he said. “These things are foreseeable and preventable. They know that.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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