Over 200 Hours

I wanted to update you guys on how my family and I are doing after the Derecho. Last week, our generator showed a maintenance message. It needed a new filter because it had been running for over 200 hours straight. This was alarming because my ventilator only has 9 hours of battery life. The power company, NIPSCO, wouldn’t help after telling them about my critical situation with the ventilator. The generator repair company didn’t have a filter in stock and had to order one from out of state. The generator would only take a particular filter brand that wasn’t available to us in stores. They were hoping it would come in a couple of days so they could change it.

The waiting and the dread that followed were maddening. The generator people weren’t sure if they would get the part in time, and my family and I started to panic. We contacted the office of a US representative, who said they would look into this. We also contacted the Red Cross, who said that they would work with us if we couldn’t come up with a solution. My family debated back and forth about getting another generator or going to the hospital if the lights went out. We contacted my pulmonologist for advice. He told us that the local emergency rooms were overrun since the disaster and my chances of being admitted were dismal. Even if we could get to the hospital, my insurance won’t cover the transfer fee of transporting me there and back ($1000 ride).

I have always been a critical thinker, so I went into solution mode. I posted to the muscular dystrophy groups I am a part of on Facebook, but they had come back with similar stuff that my family already tried. At that point, I created a post to share with my Facebook friends and family. It had surprising results. I heard from a lot of former classmates that I haven’t heard from in a while. Some formed group chats with me, trying to think of solutions. Some shared my post with their following and asked for help. One person offered to help get my family in contact with the senator’s office. My older sister did the same thing as I did, and her post blew up more than mine did. I have been receiving messages from her friends on how they can help and support our family.

I felt so much love and support in these moments. I had a network of people offering their support and guidance, which I truly appreciate from the bottom of my heart. It made me smile to know that I have so many people in my life that I can turn to if things get bad. 

After my sister’s and my quest for help on Facebook, the generator people were able to get the filter part in time and replace the part in the generator. While we were happy that the immediate issue was resolved, we still had the looming thoughts about what would happen if another 200 hours passed without power. We still had no info about when power would be restored. 

However, we didn’t have to worry for long. By last Saturday, we had power back and both of our wifi networks. Our mobile data is still a little wonky, though. I had to escalate it with my mobile company to see what is going on. 

There was some cost associated with this outage. Having the USB wifi stick was an expensive endeavor. To have internet on that for about a week was almost $200. The USB wifi can support 10 devices, but only for light use, not streaming on all devices. Also, it buffered on all our devices when it got to around 7 pm at night, to the point we could barely use the internet at all. Some websites I couldn’t use no matter what time of day.

Some of the costs were trivial given the gravity of our situation, but they were important things to me. I participate in four book clubs. For three of them, I had checked out the books online, and I couldn’t access them during the outage. I could only read books that I had downloaded. The same goes for the book that I had planned for this month for our read-along. While I was still able to read a lot of books, I am way behind on the ones that I had committed to reading this month. I also missed the video chats from one group because of the lack of internet. 

Despite how mad I feel about how much this disaster cost me, many people are in worse conditions than my family is. We still had access to food because of the generator. Thousands of people had to toss out food because of the lack of power. Grocery stores have been packed for the last several days because people had to restock all the food they lost, which is expensive. 

Also, remember how I said that NIPSCO didn’t provide answers to our request for help? I found out later that my city was an outlier. NIPSCO had posted a timeline of when different cities and towns in the area would get their power back. However, my city, Gary, Indiana, was conveniently left off that list. There are questions about whether it is racially motivated because our city’s populace is majority black. 

While I would like to believe that isn’t the case, it is hard not to. While my family got back power, there are many in the city who are not only without power, but still have trees obstructing the area. We still have trees obstructing the power lines that will eventually lead to issues if another storm comes our way. My neighbor still has a tree on top of his house. I had a cousin who had to call her sons to get off her block. They had to bring saws to make a small opening within the crashed trees to get her out. A lot of businesses haven’t been able to open up yet because of the lack of power. 

National and international news sources like NPR, Essence, and BBC have raised concerns over our city’s lack of support. They point out how the civil rights leaders and the ACLU have talked about how Gary hasn’t received fast aid like everyone else in the county. Our governor has raised concerns about why NIPSCO isn’t working fast enough, considering the federal aid it has been provided. NIPSCO is facing a lawsuit from local citizens about the prolonged outage and lack of support in removing hazardous trees in the area that could potentially result in more disasters. 

There are people in the community who are offering support. Former NBA player and Gary native Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson is offering $100,000 to help distribute life-saving items to Gary residents like food, water, and hygiene products. Multiple local churches are offering free hot meals and grocery sites. World Central Kitchen (a non-profit organization that offers chef-prepared meals to people who have suffered through natural disasters, climate emergencies, and humanitarian crises) is also providing meals to families without food. Food influencer Keith Lee hosted an event in Gary to offer citizens recovery supplies. Indiana Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton offered $15,000 in relief efforts. Efforts like these are important because they help raise morale and offer direct help to the people suffering the most.

However, it is not enough. Thousands of people are without power and need support. That is why I ask if everyone can share this article so more people can become aware of the situation happening in Gary. More eyes on this not only increases coverage, but it also creates social discourse that can lead to more help and aid for the city. To my fellow Hoosiers, I wish I could do more, but all I have is my voice to offer. Know that you are not alone and that there are still people monitoring this situation. Hopefully, more people talking about it will lead to more relief efforts. 

Sources: 

NPR

WCK

BBC

Essence

Facebook

Capital B News