More than a week after big storms hit northwest Indiana, many people still had no power on Wednesday.

About 75,000 customers had no electricity.

Most of them lived in Lake County, near the Illinois border.

Over 20,000 of them lived in Gary.

People waited in line at community centers for hot food and phone charging.

The power company is called NIPSCO.

It said Gary will not have full power until Aug. 25.

The storm had winds of 99 mph.

It broke about 300 poles and 44 big poles in the city.

The company leader is Melody Birmingham.

She said the repair work is hard.

The systems are being built again.

She said people lost food and had no air conditioning.

The storm first left 300,000 customers without power.

Some people in Gary said they felt forgotten.

Birmingham is Black.

She said poor people were not ignored.

She blamed social media posts.

She said rich areas also had no power.

She said race is not the reason.

The mayor of Gary is Eddie Melton.

He said over 600 workers were fixing the power.

He called it a problem for the whole region, not just the city.

State officials said eight people died since the storms began on Aug. 11.

One was a 4-year-old boy.

In Whiting, a 74-year-old woman named Myra Carden lost power two times.

She lost power again on Tuesday.

She said when she reports the problem, the answer is that she already reported it.

She uses a generator to keep her refrigerator cold.

But she only turns it on when someone is home to watch it.