Origin: Severe storms cripple Indiana power grid

A line of severe thunderstorms on August 11, 2026, produced damaging straight-line winds that knocked down trees, poles and power lines across Indiana and immediately cut electricity to large numbers of customers. Data from the outage trackers showed roughly 267,000 Indiana outages; the state’s largest affected utility lost service to about 258,885 accounts, roughly 55% of its customers, and crews encountered widespread infrastructure damage that slowed initial restoration work.

Northwest Indiana communities were hit hardest. Thousands of households in Gary and nearby towns were left without power for days, forcing people to store food in coolers, charge devices at businesses and sleep in cars or with battery-powered fans; shelters and aid stations and volunteer groups set up meal and supply distribution to support those households. Restoration targets moved out over the week, with utility crews and mutual‑aid crews pouring into the region and officials setting a goal to return power to remaining customers by the following Friday night.

Nearly a week after the storm more than 100,000 northwest Indiana customers still lacked service, and relief operations continued alongside utility repair crews. The scale of downed trees, broken poles and severed lines meant some neighborhoods faced multi‑day outages while recovery teams prioritized public‑safety hazards and the most heavily damaged circuits.

AI-synthesized from multiple reported sources