Roughly 68,000 customers in northwest Indiana remained without electricity on Thursday morning, entering a ninth day of outages after severe storms swept the region on Aug. 11 with winds reaching 99 mph.
Northern Indiana Public Service Co. has restored power to about 306,500 connections since the storm, which initially left roughly 300,000 customers in the dark. In Gary, about 300 distribution poles and 44 transmission poles require repair or replacement, and full service is not expected until Aug. 25 in some areas, including the city.
Meanwhile, heavy rains in central Ohio triggered flash flooding across Columbus on Thursday morning. Emergency crews rescued motorists from stranded vehicles and saved a 12-year-old boy who was swept off a bridge while riding his bicycle.