r/TikTokCringe • u/Girl-Understood • Aug 22 '26

Discussion This mother has gone viral vlogging her experience during the ongoing Gary, Indiana Blackout, people angered by the GoFundMe support she's attracted decided to report it and doxxed her.

16.8k Upvotes

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6.2k

u/DJEvillincoln Aug 22 '26

Had no idea this was happening. 0 news coverage.

Wtaf.

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u/20milliondollarapi Aug 22 '26

Drove through there Thursday and the traffic lights are still out two weeks later. It’s wild to me. Even Hammond has some sections out. The signs on 80 there also aren’t working for time estimates. Haven’t been through at night. But gas stations themselves have power. At least the Gary loves does. Idk about the others.

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u/Fool_In_Flow Aug 22 '26

But the Flock cams and the toll collection cams still work.

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u/Xlxlredditor Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

Yeah they have solar power. Which Gary, ID IN should also have, funded by taxes, but hey who cares about people huh?

Edit: Indiana is IN actually

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u/Yung_zu Aug 22 '26

A blackout of this scale is definitely one way to ruin the reputation of centralized power

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u/i_lost_it_all_1 Aug 23 '26

Don't worry Trump just pulled projects started under Biden that would have improved power distribution systems and improve/upgrade infrastructure. It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for them

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u/HinterWolf Aug 27 '26

It doesn't matter. We can hem and haw all we want but even if they dont get elected again 4 years of damage is done that will take 4x that to fix and by then everyone votes back in a republican because the democrat couldnt fix 4 years of damage in 4 years

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u/Xlxlredditor Aug 22 '26

Worst part is that centralized power is a good idea but they want it as cheap as possible and so we get this

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u/Sweaty_Camel_118 Aug 23 '26

Centralized power is a risky idea in the days of ai. Having one system that can be hacked to distrubt an entire nation is too big a risk. The more decentralized our energy system is, the safer is is from external threats like a foreign nation were at war with hacking our systems.

I won't deny there are benefits to having a centralized electric grid, but i think those benefits are far outweighed by the lack or security that would come with it.

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u/krone6 Aug 23 '26

Hey now, you're using logic. We don't do that around here.

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u/chokeyourdad Aug 23 '26

How about the reputation of the state and local governments.

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u/Individual_Fall429 Aug 23 '26

Yes that’s really what the conversation is, globally. 🙄

Why on earth would anyone outside America care about your little state governments? The federal government is responsible for the entire country, or you don’t have a country, you have 50 small countries wearing a trench coat, trying to act like a grown up.

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u/Individual_Fall429 Aug 23 '26

Well Trump does want to be a dictator. A hallmark of authoritarian dictatorships are rolling blackouts. 🤷‍♀️

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u/demgoldencoins Aug 22 '26

Exactly. We have these problems because certain people chose not to fix them. We don’t have to have starving children (1 in 5 faces hunger insecurity in USA) yet we do. It’s time to stop being divided over the things they want us to be and be a power people again.

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u/blood_bones_hearts Aug 22 '26

I get so ragey when I hear people say the world is overpopulated so we can't support everyone. Yes we can. The hoarding billionaires and capitalist overlords hog all the resources for themselves so we're left to fight over crumbs because they'd rather us do that then focus our attention on the actual problem.

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u/Ancientabs Aug 23 '26

Not just billionaires, CHURCHES hoard money.

The Mormon church sits on a wealth of $500 billion dollars.

They could have permanently ended world hunger TWICE and still met their operating budget for years to come.

Someone needs to relieve the Mormon Church of its rainy day fund.

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u/endbit Aug 23 '26

They are saving up to build the Nauvoo intergenerational ship.

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u/ScatteredWavesGlory Aug 23 '26

They're saving that to create a theocracy

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u/Individual_Fall429 Aug 23 '26

You’re so right. And what do churches and billionaires have in common? They don’t pay no taxes! 🤦‍♀️

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u/Grateful_Dad17 Aug 23 '26

There’s like, at least ONE other thing…

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u/Helltothenotothenono Aug 23 '26

Time to change that for both. Oh and for that trillionaire doofus douchebag. Let’s end good trillionaire stays and make sure there never is another again until everyone is fed and pays nothing to get health care. Do that and you billionaires can hoard the rest of the money.

Well. Maybe not all of it. But you’d have a lot more supporters. And the bullshit “I signed an agreement to donate most of my wealth” doesn’t count you fucks haven’t done it. You’re still billionaires. The only one I’ve heard of actually doing it is Jeff Bezos ex wife and she’s still a billionaire.

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u/Capable-Culture917 Aug 24 '26

She’s not a billionaire anymore. She’s already given away a substantial amount of her wealth. She’s was the prize not his plastic surgery Barbie.

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u/enhancedgibbon Aug 23 '26

But you know those rocks for the hats aren't cheap.

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u/IndividualChart4193 Aug 24 '26

Oh, that’s peanuts next to what the Catholic Church has. They own soooo much property around the world but no one knows for sure how much cuz they don’t have to report it and it’s all intentionally hidden.

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u/ScatteredWavesGlory Aug 23 '26

Thanos Was Wrong

This video even though it's 7years old now I remember watching like it was yesterday and it still very much applies to what you're talking about.

Overpopulation is a myth, capitalism is a scourge.

Time for reformation.

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u/Somanylyingliars Aug 23 '26 edited 12d ago

Account nuked because reddit now forcing login. Fuck off Reddit! See you over at Lemmy.

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u/clonedhuman Aug 23 '26

There is enough in this country for everyone to have enough to eat, a place to live, and access to healthcare. There is more than enough for all of us to have those things.

But, there isn't enough for us and for the billionaires.

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u/iamwhiskerbiscuit Aug 23 '26

And it's dumb that we have a monetary system where money is created through the issuance of debt... And 85% of it is loaned to people with over $10M net worth so they can consolidate more wealth and power... So they can buy up all the available homes, electrical plants, water plants, stores etc, and sell it along to the highest bidder. When people scalp tickets or toilet paper, they can be labeled criminals. But when people scalp homes, electrical grids, municipal water supplies, farms and such... We call them shrewd business men providing valuable services. In reality, they are not providing goods and services. They are merely holding them hostage.

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u/matlspa Aug 22 '26

It's been time, for decades. It's going in the other direction, and fast, sadly

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u/unlordtempest Aug 22 '26

Gary has been ignored my entire life. FYI, I'll be 49 in 9 days.

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u/No_Mud_5999 Aug 22 '26

But hey, the DOW is over 50,000! The economy is so hot right now! Yay.

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u/newleafkratom Aug 22 '26

Let them eat shares. /s

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u/Zxvasdfthrowaway Aug 22 '26

Agreed! Btw you meant to say IN

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u/Xlxlredditor Aug 22 '26

Could you tell I'm not American

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u/Zxvasdfthrowaway Aug 22 '26

No, because the number of Americans who do not know all the state abbreviations is not small at all

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u/GlassPomoerium Aug 22 '26

So do Gary’s 8 data centers.

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u/epitimisi Aug 22 '26

It's a big club and you ain't in it. One day people will wake up to it. When it's too late

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u/rezyop Aug 22 '26

But gas stations themselves have power.

I've always wondered how many gas stations across the US have gas generators. That just makes sense to me. Can't otherwise sell gas in a blackout, might as well burn some to stay open... right? These rural ones are probably just on the neighboring town's power grid or something, though.

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u/nametaken420 Aug 22 '26

all of the gas stations in hurricane prone zones do. but the pumps are very slow so it takes forever to get just a few gallons into a can.

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u/MrThoughtPolice Aug 23 '26

Not always true in the smaller towns :(

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u/MimicoSkunkFan2 Aug 22 '26

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northeast_blackout_of_2003

Outside of the hurricane areas, most of them didn't have any backup until this happened.

I remember a few had emergency manual pumps so I was able to leave the thriving metropolis of Ypsilanti Michigan (possibly for cleaning and used for the emergency? maybe some redditors who work at gas stations can help with that as I don't recall exactly, sleeping overnight at that gas station made my memories of it a bit muddled lol)

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u/The1Like Aug 27 '26

It was SO hot the week of the blackout in southern Ontario it was insane.

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u/MrNationwide Aug 22 '26

To provide emergency power you'd need a large generator, not just a $200 harbor freight special that you keep in the backroom. With permits and installation, you're talking at minimum $6k, probably closer to $10k for a properly setup generator, shit, maybe more. This is what you're going to pay for a whole home generator, maybe a business generator is going to be even more. Then you have what is essentially a small car's worth of regular maintenance (ie: oil changes and the like) for something that doesn't generate any revenue.

Then when the day does come that the city loses power and you're the one gas station still operating, your costs are going up (gas is more expensive than line power) and you have customers lined up down the block to buy gas, and you can't REALLY charge much more than normal because that would be price gouging. Now, even saying that a city is going to have a blackout for two weeks every decade (which they aren't), you can amortize the cost of the generator by probably 15 years, so you're talking $3k a week to be open, not including maintenance and interest.

You're basically never going to recoup your costs. The only gas stations in this country that have generators are those in hurricane areas, and that's only because they started requiring them to have them. Otherwise they would just plan to shut down during power outages.

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u/Known_Ratio5478 Aug 23 '26

Most have shifted to solar to power the gas pumps. They have those awnings over the pumps that are perfect for solar collection.

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u/KaijuDesk Aug 23 '26

Mom and Pop gas stations don’t own the gas so they’d have to pay the oil companies if they used it

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u/QING-CHARLES Aug 28 '26

I'm very rural mid-west. The Casey's near me does not have a generator at all and we have frequent power outages from the constant tornados and storms this year. They usually have to stuff all the frozen things in car trunks and run them to the next nearest store.

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u/Positive_Piece5859 Aug 22 '26

I heard 0 about this until now - it’s infuriating that nobody talks about it (media). How did this start and why does it take so long?

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u/20milliondollarapi Aug 22 '26

There was a really bad storm a couple weeks ago and it took out a lot of power. It was in the news for the first couple days, then people moved on. If you’re not in the area, it’s not surprising to not have heard. Some like over half a million people without power for days.

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u/sydal Aug 23 '26

Even outside of gary, people are still without power almost 2 weeks later. There was three different bad storms, but the one on Tuesday was the worst for sure. I had no power for a full week and had to check into a hotel to get stable power and internet. It was terrifying to drive through Lake County, it was just decimated in so many areas. Scary stuff

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u/SharpGuava007 Aug 23 '26

Omg 😳 that’s horrible. I’m just hearing about this now.

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u/theaudacity1999 Aug 26 '26

There was an area of SE Pennsylvania that was hit by a tornado and flooding. They were out of power for almost two weeks due to the heavy amount of tree damage. It's possible in 2026.

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u/Zeoxult Aug 23 '26

This happens quite frequently, its nothing to report outside of it being "a bad storm with on-going efforts to restore power". When winter hit our area, we lost power for 3 weeks, with all cities in a 100 mile radius of us also experiencing same problems.

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u/PrincipleFlaky Aug 23 '26

Oh my God. They’ve been talking about the storm since it hit.

And they’ve been talking about the loss of power since people have been suffering since August 11.

National Newspaper & Digital Outlets

The New York Times: Published multiple detailed pieces—including "Desperation Mounts as Thousands in Indiana Endure 10 Days Without Power"—profiling local grocery store closures, spoiled medical supplies, and community relief efforts.

The Guardian: Has maintained continuous tracking of the 215,000+ total outages, reporting on the 11th straight day of blackouts, canceled schools, and dry gas pumps.

NPR: Released continuous reports detailing the "survival mode" of the area, quoting local university professors on the compounding health hazards of extended generator use.

Scripps News / Yahoo News: Distributed nationwide reports analyzing the 99 mph derecho winds, the three confirmed storm deaths, and the political fallout between local mayors and the utility company.

📻 Local & Regional Media (24/7 Coverage)

NBC Chicago / WMAQ: Has provided daily, neighborhood-by-neighborhood tracking, including video updates on substation fires and individual power line updates across Lake County.

FOX59 / CBS4 Indy: Has run continuous broadcasts tracking the deployment of utility trucks, tree-trimming crews, and state disaster relief funding updates.

The Financial Express: Published video and written updates analyzing the broader economic and logistical impact on Midwest infrastructure.

The idea that "nothing was covered" simply isn't true. The data proves it was tracked closely by local reporters from day one and scaled up to every single major national network.

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u/[deleted] Aug 22 '26

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u/hurler_jones Aug 22 '26

Yes - then they go work other areas and come back later with police protection.

We went through this after Katrina too but it was much longer than 2 weeks.

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u/DisposableSaviour Aug 22 '26

And then people will wonder why it suddenly costs so much for this kind of work.

A few years ago here in Memphis, a couple power company trucks got robbed at gunpoint when clearing down branches and cutting back tree limbs near power lines. Next storm hits and power goes out every where because of all the downed lines from the untrimmed branches. Next year, it’s 4x the amount to hire crews to do the work, because they want armed guards with them. People around here acted like it was graft and corruption that spiked the cost, and I’m certain that that was some of it, but it’s a vital infrastructure job, and people want to be safe on the job. No, the police can’t do it, obviously, for reasons.

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u/PeskyAntagonist Aug 22 '26

Yeah that makes sense for Gary

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u/manny_the_mage Aug 22 '26

kinda shitty though that a whole community is being held accountable for the actions of an individual

but considering the demographics of Gary, this type of treatment tracks

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u/InFlagrantDisregard Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

It's just one shooting but not just one individual. There are linemen being verbally abused, threatened, having their trucks surrounded, people demanding they go help other streets or blocks first, etc etc.

 

I don't blame them for saying, "Screw this, not without security" and now all your recovery work is beholden to police security presence.

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u/Illustrious-Use-2261 Aug 24 '26

If they want to act like animals… the world can show them what it’s like to live like animals.

If I was one of those workers I wouldn’t step foot anywhere near that area.

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u/ChoiceHistorian8477 Aug 23 '26

Then the community should get together and make the workers safe enough to work there. If that were my community, and we’re all suffering we are going to not allow it. If you don’t want the police policing, figure it out.

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u/manny_the_mage Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

Communities across America are slowly turning into nothing but strangers that live by each other

You'd be surprised how people now adays feel very little connection to the people that live across the street from them

But yeah, collectively punishing a community by refusing to dispatch electrical crews because of the actions of one or two people is pretty frustrating

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u/ineverreddit Aug 23 '26

The dispatch crews are not robots, they are people that don't want to go get shot at and are more than in their right to refuse to want to work there; are you suggesting forcing them?

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u/oso_polar Aug 23 '26

That story reeks of a racist hoax.

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u/perfectlynormaltyes Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

100% they weren’t even working on the lines but ‘scouting’ at midnight. Either way, one shooting shouldn’t halt the entire city from getting their power back.

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u/Spiritual_Appeal_961 Aug 23 '26

The community is saying it was a stray bullet from someone trying to protect their home from looters at night but either way understandably scary. I hope they all get the help they need.

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u/Davo-Pano Aug 22 '26

To be fair most of those traffic lights in gary have been out for years

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u/notyouraverageskippy Aug 22 '26

The gas stations are probably running on diesel generators and not the grid.

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u/shmere4 Aug 22 '26

Hammond, the place where the Bears are moving to?

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u/Reasonable-Job4205 Aug 22 '26

Good luck, Bears.

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u/BrightNooblar Aug 23 '26

I'm here camping, power still out some places.

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u/SailorDeath Aug 23 '26

I live in portage, there are still a few areas where the traffic lights are out but not many, also a large part of Portage has power again. But Gary is a nightmare. It doesn't help that there's reports of workers getting shot at either which only further adds to the issues with getting power restored but it can't go on like this.

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u/zytz Aug 23 '26

I also drove home through Gary Thursday evening- what was really odd to me was how the complete outage seemed primarily around residential areas. Like along some of the main road even if businesses were dark you’d have section of road where the streetlights were lit or the traffic signals were functioning. But as soon as you turned off, not even a black away it just turns pitch black

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u/OldStatistician619 Aug 23 '26

I'm confused here. This is completely normal in Florida when we have a hurricane roll through. They had hurricane level wind with no corresponding hurricane resistant infrastructure, this seems like a totally normal thing to still have power out.

When we get hurricanes down here though, we have FEMA out in force in less then a week. They have food and supply tents setup and you usually have some kind of cash payment soon into it to help support people. Is this not happening there?

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u/DAT_BIG-BOI Aug 28 '26

They say Rome didn't fall in a day; at some point, the roads just stopped getting fixed.

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u/MindAccomplished3879 Cringe Connoisseur Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

All of northwest Indiana went dark since morning on August 10th, from East Chicago and Hammond to Valparaiso and Cedar Lake to South Bend. 400,000 thousand customers

Very slowly, they have been working on the downed lines, and about 80% is up now, but still, almost 2 weeks later, the poor areas are still without power while affluent areas of Highland and Munster were turned on a day or two after

Nipsco needs to be sued the shit out of it

https://youtu.be/tvkSXsM26Y8?is=rLpabrwR7Cjgo0yQ

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u/thesaddestpanda Aug 22 '26

Good luck with these lawsuits in a deep red state. The red courts will just dismiss them. This is happening because they know they will get away with it.

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u/MindAccomplished3879 Cringe Connoisseur Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 24 '26

That's absolutely true

Once I sued a company for breach of contract and income losses when the service it provided to me failed. That caused me thousands of dollars in lost clients' revenue

I sued them for 6 months' lost income. Because of something called a ‘Mandatory forum selection clause,’ I was forced to file the lawsuit in their headquarters city, in Houston. It never prospered. Last, I received a letter from the Texas attorney general rubbing it in my face, saying they are a business-first state, and that my lawsuit will be used for statistical purposes to measure TX businesses' satisfaction

WTF

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u/Opening-Pickle5078 Aug 22 '26

That's why you cant mess with something already so messed up. One star state.

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u/IdownvoteTexas Aug 27 '26

Im stealing that one star state line hahah

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u/ifandorwhen Aug 22 '26

No wonder buc-ees just said they wanted to business only in "conservative, business friendly" states like Arkansas. Great for business...shit for consumers.

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u/Somanylyingliars Aug 23 '26 edited 12d ago

Account nuked because reddit now forcing login. Fuck off Reddit! See you over at Lemmy.

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u/The_Orphanizer Aug 23 '26

Profits over people. Fuck Texas forever.

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u/hisbabydoll_xo Aug 23 '26

Red states are basically corrupt corps moments away from bankruptcy at any moment. They have shit leadership, shit infrastructure and couldn’t possibly care less about the citizens they are supposed to serve. Frankly I’m surprised this shit doesn’t happen more often

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u/Cyborg_rat Aug 22 '26

I mean they are also. Not making money., you would thing they would rush to fix that.

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u/LowManufacturer1002 Aug 23 '26

even if they get sued, they still made more money in not paying for proper maintenance over the years and then they will use it as justification to raise rates more anyway. companies always win in these red states

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u/JustLurkingForNow Aug 22 '26

This might be true mostly but my white buddy in an affluent part of Munster is still without power today.

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u/Adequate_Cheesecake7 Aug 27 '26

I lived in Virginia when Hurricane Isabel went through. Power was out for most everyone for a week, but it took about 5-6 weeks for me to get power back. Supposedly something broke in the substation and they had to replace a large transformer. I had water and gas, so I cooked on the fake logs in my gas fireplace, it was horrible.

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u/NWCJ Aug 22 '26

sued for what? they only have 80% of people up and have been working non-stop. If they allow themselves to be shot working in this neighborhood no one in any community is gonna get power. Its not like they got the rich people power than stopped working. But no one is gonna go work where they get shot at if other people are also without power.

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u/MindAccomplished3879 Cringe Connoisseur Aug 22 '26

They have 80% after 10 days

Sued for never taking care of the lines by doing 3- or 5-year inspections, for never trimming the trees around the lines, for never upgrading old, prone-to-fail equipment

You failed to understand NW Indiana is an area the size of Chicago. Have you ever seen all of Chicago go dark?

The storm that caused havoc in Indiana didnt start there. Passed through all the Illinois south suburbs, and power never went out there except for a few customers in Crete and Homewood

Getting shot at is a lie unless they show bullet holes in their trucks. It's obviously PR bullshit meant to cover their incompetence

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u/hisbabydoll_xo Aug 23 '26

Seems like anyone can get away with lying about being shot at these days….

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u/NWCJ Aug 22 '26

>Getting shot at is a lie unless they show bullet holes in their trucks. It's obviously PR bullshit meant to cover their incompetence

 more than 280,000 ComEd customers and over 280,000 NIPSCO are without power.

NIPSCO resumes power restoration efforts after worker's vehicle hit by gunfire in Gary, Indiana - CBS Chicago

Why would the City of Gary, the State Troopers, and the City Police Department all do a PR Bullshit campaign to protect two electric companies if those same electric company are the reason THEY had no power? That's quite the conspiracy theory. A more reasonable explanation is that someone in a high-crime-rate area committed a crime. And now that area is still getting worked on, but as last priority in the queue.

Chicago has WAY more crew, because they have way more qualified people. I live in a rural area, I get rural service.. I dont live in Gary, but when people in a bad situation, make their own situation worse.. it wont magically make it better. The electric companies will get power on, if or no other reason, they can then continue to charge people for electricity.

I have spent 8 days without power when a Tornado ripped the meter box off my house before.. It sucks, and was fixed in hours once someone showed up.. But I wasnt priority. Thats the way it goes.

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u/AdWide5106 Aug 22 '26

When it happens in small towns in Illinois they bring in more crews from else where. It's not "oh shit we only have two guys in this town". Ameren brings in crews from all over.

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u/MindAccomplished3879 Cringe Connoisseur Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

You seem to ignore that the size of the outage was relative to the size of Chicago; from Hammond to South Bend, that's like saying a ComEd truck was shot in Oak Lawn, therefore power is out in Schaumburg, and dont pretend that NW Indiana is a rural area

What do you make with that? Have you seen ComEd screw up this badly?

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u/JonnyAU Aug 22 '26

It is an extraordinary claim that electric workers were shot at, and therefore requires extraordinary evidence. "Police say" is not good enough. It's hearsay at best and cops lie as easily as breathing. The only logical course is to remain skeptical of the claim.

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u/JustLikeBettyCooper Aug 23 '26

The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) reported extensive grid destruction, including roughly 300 downed utility poles and 44 transmission poles in Gary alone, requiring total system rebuilds rather than simple line repair

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u/madamguacamole Aug 23 '26

Definitely not just the poor areas. My siblings live in NWI, and all of Highland is still out, and at least some of Merrillville.

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u/Puzzleheaded-Dog9818 Aug 23 '26

highland and munster were absolutely fucking not turned on 2 days later. they were both hit hard and took several days. earliest munster came on in 3-4 days, and parts of munster were a week. highland similar.

it is 100% true that gary is lagging, but gary is huge (especially when considering how large its population used to be), and gary's infrastructure was deeply unmaintained. Gary had so many trees that were just waiting to fall down, because its underfunded everywhere. but there are plenty of non-gary places still without power. Merrillville and Portage are nearly just as bad (% wise).

it is also 100% true that NIPSCO should be investigated. even if this was the largest event ever, something wasnt done right. but let's keep to facts and not smear a real issue and real problems with false comments.

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u/vmp2596 Aug 23 '26

There are still parts of Munster and Highland without power

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u/Fubarp Aug 29 '26

Sorta late to this but I remember when we had a massive storm come through Iowa and it took out power for a very large chunk of the state, and it took like 2 weeks before power was restored everywhere. My parents house didnt have power for 10 days.

This seems like it was a similar situation, a massive storm took out a lot of power lines. Not sure how this can be blamed on the company as it seems like they are working hard to reestablish power to the area.

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u/katieb1300 Aug 22 '26

Only reason I'm aware of what's going on is because I live in the Chicago area and Gary has the same news as Chicago. I hear they're asking for help federally (lol good luck) and they're filing a lawsuit. None of this would be happening if the area wasn't poor. It just goes to show that any poor area is one natural disaster away from having nothing. Katrina was a great example of American prejudice.

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u/adollopofsanity Aug 22 '26

Tell them to do what that one town did. Send requests for international aid and assistance. That'll get the bridge built.

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u/singlemale4cats Aug 22 '26

That's amazing. I bet that would still work today. A state that Trump blocked from receiving duly appropriated federal funds asks China for help. China might be happy to help to embarrass Trump, who then would face a lot of pressure to restore the funding else look weak.

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u/Somanylyingliars Aug 23 '26 edited 12d ago

Account nuked because reddit now forcing login. Fuck off Reddit! See you over at Lemmy.

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u/JustLikeBettyCooper Aug 23 '26

The Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) reported extensive grid destruction, including roughly 300 downed utility poles and 44 transmission poles in Gary alone, requiring total system rebuilds rather than simple line repair

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u/wronguses Aug 23 '26

I don't think it has anything to do with the area being poor. A lot of that 80/94 corridor commutes to Chicago. Makes Chicago money. Portage is still down. Valpo just got power back days ago.

This is 100% on NIPSCO being shady as fuck and pocketing funds instead of doing the work they were paid for (clearing trees, hardening infrastructure, modernizing an ancient grid).

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u/Frequilibrium Aug 22 '26

Right wing owns all media.

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u/Han77Shot1st Aug 22 '26

Americans gotta learn to protest and vote.. handed their country over to the oligarchs for penny’s on the dollar, gonna be the next USSR in a decade if they don’t straighten up.

I’d care less if they didn’t have so much influence and were trying to pull democratic nations down with them.. only bright side is the world has learned not to intrust any single nation with so much influence and control.

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u/RoutineCloud5993 Aug 22 '26

America exists because of French support. It's about time they learned a few things about their national sports (rioting and striking(

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u/irrelevantusername24 Aug 22 '26

People really don't understand how big of an effect the sprawl has on this wasteland.

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u/YungRik666 Aug 22 '26

Yeah they think people in NY can sync up with people in LA, and that the government wouldn't use airstrikes and tanks against anything real.

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u/frustrated_t-rex Aug 23 '26

Considering there's already been an airstrike in/on a major US city, I fully believe we'd be under martial law in a second.

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u/Fukyourchickenstrip Aug 24 '26

They were training the military in urban warfare just a few months ago in Pasadena CA. Didn’t get city permission or permits. Didn’t inform the residents until a few hours before. Blackhawks tanks, artillery rounds, 50 cals popping off all night long. Because a private citizen billionaire owns the closed old hospital and they did it on private property.

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u/dinnerthief Aug 22 '26

There is definitely a degree of apathy as well especially among the younger generations who usually bring the energy, ive been to a decent number of protests and there is hardly any gen z there.

People will complain that no one does anything and then not show up to do anything.

Revolutions have to grow from something

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u/urlach3r Aug 23 '26

I'm a big Heartstopper fan, but I had to laugh at a plot point towards the end of the series. The two main characters are a bit distraught because one will be going off to college soon, and it's so far away, a whole three hours from London to Leeds. Like, I can drive three hours & still be in my home state. Non Americans just have no idea how massive the US is.

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u/WellIGuessSoAndYou Aug 22 '26

You have to understand that Americans are exceptional and above all that.

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u/l0diO Aug 22 '26

working americans need to be the next USSR by seizing control of the state and purging the aristocracy

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u/[deleted] Aug 22 '26

What’s voting got to do with it? I thought the election was stolen.

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u/VibraniumQueen Aug 22 '26

I literally saw coverage of Gary Indiana's black out on Good Monring America early this week.

Media is biased, yes, but some of you idiots just don't pay attention to actual news sources and then act surprised when it shows up on your social media feed.

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u/xteve Aug 22 '26

The news media are biased, but also we simply can't expect quality journalism like we used to. Even the serious players don't hire competent proofreaders the way they used to, never mind good reporters.

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u/VibraniumQueen Aug 22 '26

Oh, definitely. I just dont like when redditors or other social media residents complain about news outlets not covering stories when they are the ones not watching the news in the first place unless it comes across their dash/home page in snippets/links.

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u/Stonedinthewoodz Aug 22 '26

Don’t worry about this but make sure you worry about that one transgender kid playing basketball…

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u/Oregongirl1018 Aug 22 '26 edited Aug 22 '26

I don't want my daughter to accidentally see a man dressed like a woman in the womens bathroom...but wouldn't care if trump raped my kid, he's getting the immigrants out. ~Every republican

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u/Traditional-Tap-2508 Aug 22 '26

Agreed. I heard about it on reddit a couple of days ago. Wild

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u/BabyNuke Aug 22 '26

Strangely I was watching news coverage from the Netherlands yesterday about this yet somehow in the US itself it gets little mention.

https://nos.nl/artikel/2627783-tienduizenden-mensen-al-ruim-een-week-zonder-stroom-in-amerikaanse-staat-indiana

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u/VibraniumQueen Aug 22 '26

It was on Good Morning America earlier this week. These people just don't watch the actual news.

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u/1900grs Aug 22 '26

Two days ago is when they reported in it. It's not like a story they've been tracking.

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u/VibraniumQueen Aug 22 '26

I mean, I don't really trust GMA to keep track of much of anything other than pop culture. My point is that EVEN Gma is covering it. So there must be other outlets following it.

Also, they had been saying how many customers were without power in Indiana and Illinois in the few days after the storm. It wouldn't make sense to point out Gary specifically back then when other towns were also without power in the 48-72 hours or so after the storm.

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u/Initial-Addendum-167 Aug 23 '26

You ever try getting in news to North Korea? Yeah, same problem. Different stage of development.

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u/Somanylyingliars Aug 23 '26 edited 12d ago

Account nuked because reddit now forcing login. Fuck off Reddit! See you over at Lemmy.

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u/305_Character_1983 Aug 22 '26

Makes sense. It's Gary. Everyone likes to make pretend that place doesn't exist.

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u/[deleted] Aug 22 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ZAlternates Aug 22 '26

Sadly people these days wait for the algorithm to feed them the latest news.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 Aug 22 '26

My pet peeve man!

Also "news media isn't reporting on this" and then they link an CNN article

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u/pioneersky Aug 22 '26

The other issue is people think “paying attention to the news” is watching Fox News or CNBC a lot and so understandably find that unappealing because those things just rehash partisan talking points constantly. NPR does this plenty too with much of their national programming being talking heads talking about the same stories BUT what I do appreciate is at least my public radio station plays more diverse news programs from around the world: DW, BBC, CBC, regional news services like upper plains media, harvest public media, etc. it’s nice to play a couple hours a day at any time and get a few stories told from wider perspectives

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u/1900grs Aug 22 '26

They've been out of power for 2 weeks and you're posting articles from yesterday and today when a video was shared to reddit today. I don't know why you think that doesn't equal a silo.

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u/is-this-now Aug 22 '26

it's been 10 or 11 days now.

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u/vxsapphire Aug 22 '26

I was always told Gary, Indiana is one of those places you never stop in or visit. I'm guessing reporters take that advice too.

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u/purrmutations Aug 22 '26

Entirely the news you watch, that is a you problem.

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u/midi-clhorian Aug 23 '26

You just don't pay attention. Simple as that. Ive seen multiple local outlets talking about it here in Ohio. Not everything is covered on national news.

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u/SF1034 What are you doing step bro? Aug 23 '26

It's on literally every major news site but okay

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u/Hairy-Reward6474 Aug 26 '26

Some white lady killed her kids and some other white lady said trans people shouldn’t play in the wnba, so it makes sense you didn’t hear about it.

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u/Emphasis_on_IDK Aug 22 '26

They have no power to cover it with /s

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u/BeatNo2976 Aug 22 '26

It’s cause their news cameras use electricity

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u/Bamsihap Aug 22 '26

Interesting. I am aware and I live in the Netherlands! I did find out via this woman though, she arrived via the algorithm in my feed.

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u/McCrackenYouUp Aug 22 '26

I saw it on my feed, but it's also not exactly uncommon for places to lose power during natural disasters.

Here in Oregon we get these crazy ice storms that take down whole telephone poles and shit. We went 10 days without power just a few years ago, some neighborhoods even longer. Depending on the area, there are only so many workers that can get to where it's needed to fix the lines.

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u/thatplantguy619 Aug 22 '26

Hard to provide news coverage when you have no power lol

I live in Chicago (can practically see Gary from my apartment) and have not heard about this

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u/1-N-Only-Speedshark Aug 23 '26

Yea, I only learned this the other day when I was reading an article describing how the U.S. power grid could be fairly easily taken down by coordinated targeted attacks on substations.

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u/LDawnBurges Aug 23 '26

They’ve mentioned it a couple of times on NBC Nightly News, but only in little passing blurbs. Tonight they mentioned it’s Day 11 without power… but they haven’t done any in depth stories. It’s definitely weird.

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u/Phil_Coffins_666 Aug 23 '26

I wonder if that's because the power is out and they can't report it

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u/realfakejames Aug 23 '26

Billionaires own all the news channels, even the so-called liberal ones

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u/ProudReaction2204 Aug 23 '26

New York times is covering it

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u/TheChonkening Aug 23 '26

I mean, local news isn’t profitable anymore. They’ve cut so many newsrooms

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u/PrincipleFlaky Aug 23 '26

Not true it was just on David Muir tonight. And the night before and the night before.

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u/PrincipleFlaky Aug 23 '26

The disaster itself was never a secret, and the cameras were absolutely there on day one. The online frustration was entirely about how quickly that initial coverage faded while thousands of people were left stuck in "survival mode" for nearly two weeks. But the fact is they were literally in the dark.

YOU weren’t. Don’t be like oh the media didn’t cover it just because you’re not watching the actual news.

The New York Times: Published multiple detailed pieces—including "Desperation Mounts as Thousands in Indiana Endure 10 Days Without Power"—profiling local grocery store closures, spoiled medical supplies, and community relief efforts.

The Guardian: Has maintained continuous tracking of the 215,000+ total outages, reporting on the 11th straight day of blackouts, canceled schools, and dry gas pumps

NPR: Released continuous reports detailing the "survival mode" of the area, quoting local university professors on the compounding health hazards of extended generator use

Scripps News / Yahoo News: Distributed nationwide reports analyzing the 99 mph derecho winds, the three confirmed storm deaths, and the political fallout between local mayors and the utility company

NBC Chicago / WMAQ: Has provided daily, neighborhood-by-neighborhood tracking, including video updates on substation fires and individual power line updates across Lake County

FOX59 / CBS4 Indy: Has run continuous broadcasts tracking the deployment of utility trucks, tree-trimming crews, and state disaster relief funding updates.

The Financial Express: Published video and written updates analyzing the broader economic and logistical impact on Midwest infrastructure.

The idea that "nothing was covered" simply isn't true. The data proves it was tracked closely by local reporters from day one and scaled up to every single major national network.

🙄

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u/The_Enigmatica Aug 23 '26

if the news covered it, it means they'd suddenly have a contradiction between "the bears are leaving for hammond" and "hammond literally doesn't have the infrastructure to support basic necessities", and be forced to drop their hit campaign against pritzker over the bears

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u/LowManufacturer1002 Aug 23 '26

my friend is at day 12 no power. not expected to get it until tuesday. it’s so fucked. a lot of it is because the power company (NIPSCO) cheaper out on doing preventative maintenance, specifically keeping vegetation around their power lines trimmed, which is/was a contractual requirement. Now they have been entirely ineffective in restoring power missing every self selected time frame they have told people.

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u/varineq Aug 23 '26

300,000+ of us had no power for days. I finally got it back after day six. Lost all my food. There were unbelievably long lines at the gas stations. In some places people were fighting for gas at the pumps. I drove all the way to Michigan to buy some food, gasoline, ice, and a cooler.

There are people all over the county in all the towns that still don’t have power, but over 50% of those without power are in Gary.

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u/teteAtit Aug 23 '26

I’ve read about it in the AP email I get daily (free), and Washington Post (subscribed)

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u/Otterhendrix Aug 23 '26

My coworker was in Gary for a family reunion 3 days before all this happened. He said it’s horrible there right now because people are trying to rob other people out of desperation. He said damn near all the stores within a 15-20 mile radius are out of food. 

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u/ToldUtheyRComing Aug 23 '26

My friend's aunt lives there and was told she likely won't have power until September 18th. 

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u/Amish_Juggalo469 Aug 23 '26

There's no power in the newsroom so they can't report.

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u/_Oman Aug 24 '26

Gary is majority black and has lots of poverty. That means that the administration and media don't really care about their suffering.

It doesn't get the libs mad at the conservatives or the other way around so it isn't really worth reporting.

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u/BabbaBurger Aug 28 '26

NYT covered it but it may be paywalled.

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