Severe storms and tornadoes in northwest Indiana left many Gary residents without power for nearly two weeks, according to Canary Media. Among those affected were Stephen Mays and Lori Latham, who each endured outages of 12 and 13 days. Thousands of other residents in the city lost electricity for as long as two full weeks.
The report links this prolonged outage to the recent cancellation of Solar for All, a federal program designed to bring rooftop solar and battery storage to low-income communities. With backup power, residents could have kept lights on, refrigerated food safe, and medical devices running during grid failures. The source argues that pulling the program leaves cities like Gary more exposed to the growing threat of climate-fueled storms.