It’s Sunday August 23rd and 28,495 households in Indiana, most from the predominantly black city of Gary Indiana will have been without power for 12 days. No power means food rotting in refrigerators, it means empty grocery stores, no fuel because gas stations are closed, no clean drinking water, medications like insulin going bad. Schools have been closed since the 11th
Gary, Indiana, a town of 69,000 residents is 76.2% black, 10.4% hispanic or latino, and 11% white. One-third of the residents live in poverty. The poverty line for a family of three is $27,320 - imagine trying to maintain a family of three on $2,276 per month, and then having this blackout cause all the food you’ve saved up in your fridge and freezer rot.
Residents said the storm had already cost their families thousands of dollars in spoiled food, lost wages, hotel bills, fuel for generators and other costs of enduring the blackout.
And the trump regime so far has only authorized up to $5 million of federal assistance while the storm damage being tallied now has already reached $550 million and could climb as high as $5 billion.
It’s no wonder that residents feel left behind. “We are being left behind every time something goes on. Gary is left behind. We are the last ones on the totem pole to get anything done.”
I don’t have the full picture of how NIPSCO worked to restore power. It could simply be coincidence that the predominantly white cities had their power restored before the majority black cities.
And it could just be a coincidence that since Trey Reed’s hanging death in Mississipi last September, 13 more black people have died in suspicious hangings and drownings across the country.
It could be a total coincidence that the Proud Boys and other white supremacist groups stopped being publicly active at the same time that clearly untrained, unfit, and unqualified ICE agents started brutalizing people. Total coincidence that Tom Homan met with Proud Boys associates to talk about mass deportations before Trump’s 2nd term.
I also find it fascinating that there isn’t the same online fervor that we saw after Helene devastated rural Appalachia. The internet back then was on fire about how FEMA wasn’t helping, about how the federal government had abandoned the citizens.
There were even armed militia groups going around harassing aid workers.
I’m not saying the response to Helene was perfect, but a week after Helene hit, the Biden admin had provided $137 million of federal assistance and sent 1,500 active duty troops, 6,100 National Guard and 7,000 federal civilian personnel. I’m sure the scope of these disasters is different but that’s a stark contrast to the $5 million the trump regime has approved, Indiana governor Mike Braun requested a major disaster declaration to unlock more federal funds on Thursday. The trump regime has not approved that request as of Sunday the 23rd.
In December, Indiana deployed 300 of their National Guard troops to Washington for the D.C. Safe and Beautiful, Joint Task Force. A stark contrast to the 70 National guardsmen and women deployed for storm relief. I don’t know, what seems more urgent? This video is from the 21st of National Guard and FBI deployed in D.C. standing around a school, doing nothing. This video is from the residents of Gary, Indiana who have been without power for 12 days.
The lack of government response to disasters like Katrina, to the Tornadoes that devastated black neighborhoods in St Louis on May 16th 2025, to this latest disaster in Gary, Indiana is what people mean when they say the U.S. government is a white supremacist government. The stunning loss of representation for black Americans due to the Supreme Court’s decision in May, Louisiana v. Callais, a decision that granted states permission to re-draw congressional maps to eliminate majority black districts is what racism looks like.
This webpage has resources on how you can help: https://blockclubchicago.org/2026/08/21/gary-residents-have-been-without-power-for-10-days-heres-how-you-can-help/
PSL Chicago has resources on how to help:
