Intense winds knock out power to over 35K in northwest Indiana

Around 35,000 NIPSCO customers in northwest Indiana were left without power on Monday evening after wind gusts of up to 70 miles per hour tore through the region.

The National Weather Service reported a peak gust of 59 miles per hour near Portage High School. Gusts in excess of 50 miles per hour were recorded in other areas, including Cedar Lake and LaPorte.

The strong winds caused significant damage, including numerous downed trees, fallen power lines and a collapsed radio tower. Forecasters cautioned that intense winds could knock out power, with damage possible in both Illinois and northwest Indiana.

LaPorte experienced the most outages; 6,058 NIPSCO customers were without power.

Communities reporting more than 1,000 outages are listed below:

• Cedar Lake – 5,382
• Chesterton – 5,446
• Crown Point – 5,042
• Gary – 1,748
• Hobart – 5,328
• Merrillville – 4,063
• Michigan City – 1,682
• Portage – 3,273
• Saint John – 2,660
• Schererville – 1,574
• Valparaiso – 2,655

As of 6:20 p.m., ComEd reported around 8,600 outages in northern Illinois, which was down from more than 25,000 at the height of the winds.