Holiday weekend turns miserable for thousands still without power in Indianapolis

Kaleb and Lexi Hobgood's plans for their Fourth of July vacation weekend imploded when they lost power in Thursday's storm, along with more than 81,000 Indianapolis residents.

"It went from a relaxing weekend to a nightmare," Kaleb Hobgood told IndyStar.

The nightmare continued Monday as the couple were among the 3,964 AES Indiana customers still without power as of midday for four days and counting amid a restoration effort by the utility company. An additional 3,342 customers were experiencing outages as of Monday midday from the weekend's storms, according to AES Indiana.

As temperatures in the Hobgoods' home soared to a sweltering 90 degrees Friday, they worried their four dogs, who were already panting in their thick fur coats, would overheat and they moved to an air mattress in a friend's home. They haven't been able to sleep in their home since Thursday.

"It was very frustrating," Hobgood said, adding that it had been impossible to get in touch with AES Indiana to know when power will be restored. Before power was restored late Monday afternoon, he said he feared flooding from the weekend's torrential rain because the sump pump in his home's crawl space hasn't been able to run.

Across Indianapolis, the damage has been widespread and lasting. Fridges full of groceries spoiled, holiday plans were canceled, and some residents even reported risk to critical medicines that require refrigeration.

Many businesses and agencies, from libraries to grocery stores to restaurants, faced power outages that have shuttered their doors. Stoplights have gone dark, leaving drivers to negotiate busy intersections the way you would a four-way stop sign.

More: Yes, Indianapolis was hit by a 'derecho' Thursday. Here's what that means.

Derecho's impact widespread

The widespread impact, with more than 2,600 separate incidents of damage to AES Indiana equipment, was the result of a uniquely devastating storm Thursday compounded by more wind and rainstorms through the weekend that power restoration crews had to battle, AES Indiana spokesperson Kelly Young said.

"We haven't experienced anything like this for a while" – possibly since the 1990s, Young said. Thursday's storm has been classified as a derecho, which is a storm that has "the force of a hurricane and the mass of a tornado," Young said.

"Unprecedented" is the word many residents who spoke with IndyStar used to describe the long power outage they've been experiencing.

In the 31 years that Jeffrey S. McQuary has lived downtown, he said, he’s never experienced anything like the 36-hours-and-counting power outage that he’s been dealing with since Sunday.

"It seems to be a sign of declining infrastructure," he said Monday from a Mass Ave. pub where he was taking refuge from the heat in his condo. "That’s something that needs to be addressed."

AES had more than 600 crew members working at the peak of restoration efforts around the clock, including crews that traveled from Illinois, Tennessee and Ohio. Most of the damage was from high winds knocking down trees and downing power lines, along with some damage to equipment, AES Indiana CEO Kristina Lund said Friday.

The crews must move the trees, saw them up and reconnect the power lines. AES Indiana advised customers not to touch downed trees or power lines and to report outages to the company.

Young said she expected customers who lost power Thursday to regain it by the end of Monday but added that it's difficult to provide exact estimates because of how widespread the damage is.

Leslie Flowers said tears sprang to her eyes when the power came back in her Broad Ripple condo on Monday after four days without power.

"You just never realize how dependent you are on something," she said. She had been waiting to welcome her daughter home from college when the storm hit. They relied on flashlights and candles for 4 nights, navigating up the stairs in the dark to get her daughter's two cats settled in. The Hubbard and Cravens coffee shop became their pitstop for charging devices and working remotely.

She said she's glad the issue was resolved, but has concerns about how vulnerable Indianapolis is to prolonged outages.

"I really believe (AES Indiana) were responding as quickly as they could but it makes you wonder how vulnerable our power grid is with lines above ground, it's really easy for this to happen," Flowers said.

AES in midst of replacing old equipment

The utility company is in the middle of a seven-year, $1.2 billion plan, called Smart Grid, to upgrade aging equipment including utility poles. The company started the updates in 2020. Lund said Friday newly updated poles held up well in the storm compared to older ones.

Across the country, power outages will likely increase with climate change, an aging electrical grid and increased energy demand, an April research paper published in Nature Communications stated. Long outages can have severe public health consequences, the researchers wrote, including health hazards for people using electricity-dependent medical equipment, such as oxygen concentrators, as well as hypothermia and heatstroke in aging and poorly insulated housing stock.

Indiana has been uniquely susceptible to outages, research found.

In Indiana between 2017 to 2019, counties experienced a median of three power outages lasting more than eight hours per year, according to Joan Casey, an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Washington. This is higher than the nationwide median of two lengthy outages.

AES Indiana is working on restoring power to homes and businesses affected, Young said, and has been prioritizing critical community needs such as hospitals, police and fire stations, water pumping and sewer lift stations, and nursing homes, followed by outages serving neighborhoods with the greatest number of customers. Finally, she said, they will work on outages that affect fewer homes and businesses.

Restaurants, fire stations, libraries among sites affected

Thursday's storm caused destruction and loss of property to numerous businesses. Even Indianapolis' fire stations were not unscathed, with three stations without power Friday.

Joe Smerdel, the general manager of Meridian Restaurant & Bar in Indianapolis, said the restaurant’s power resurfaced around noon Monday but had been out since Thursday. The business is typically open seven days a week, so the business has been closed for about four and a half days.

Due to the outage, the restaurant took some produce and dairy losses, and the walk-in storage will have to be checked for mold.

In addition, he said, it will take several hours to get the freezer back down to the correct temperature. Luckily, some of the more expensive products, like proteins and other items, were able to be moved to a sister restaurant to avoid spoiling, he said. The business should reopen after the July 4th holiday.

Mary Barr, director of communications for the Indianapolis Public Library, said the Beech Grove library branch has been without power since Friday and was closed Monday.

Barr said the library building has not taken any damage due to the severe weather. She said staff continue to monitor both the power and weather for any threats to public safety, informing their decisions about whether to close the branch.

“Safety is always a top concern in any decisions that we make,” she said.

Contact the reporter at 317-903-7071 or kcheang@indystar.com

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: AES power outages persist days after storms in Indianapolis