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UPDATE: More than 15,000 without power following brief storm

Lauri Harvey Keagle

More than 15,000 NIPSCO customers were without power early Saturday evening following a brief, powerful storm late in the afternoon.

At 6:30 p.m., NIPSCO reported 15,580 customers without power. Of those customers, the hardest hit were in Michigan City, which reported 3,790 customers without power.

Other hard hit areas included Portage, Munster, Westville, Valparaiso, Chesterton and LaPorte.

Nick Meyer, spokesman for NIPSCO, said crews were out just before 7 p.m. assessing the damage.

"Obviously, we know this was a very rapid-moving storm with high winds," Meyer said. "We do expect to pick up quite a few of those (without power) tonight."

Meyer said some of the outages could extend into Sunday morning. A more detailed estimate of restoration times was expected after crews complete their assessments in the field, he said.

Additional information on the NIPSCO outages is available at www.nipsco.com/stay-safe/outage-center.

The LaPorte County Sheriff's Department reported several traffic signals were out throughout the county and some trees and limbs were down.

Indiana State Police said troopers on patrol in Porter County late in the afternoon reported visibility of less than 100 feet at the peak of the gusty storm.

As of 6:20 p.m., one eastbound lane of Interstate 94 at the 27 mile marker between Ind. 49 and U.S. 421 was closed due to extreme flooding, state police said.

Police reported scattered incidents of downed power lines and tree limbs and some smouldering trees and limbs under live wires, primarily in Porter and LaPorte counties.

The Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District reported westbound train No. 508 was running 30 to 40 minutes late due to the storm knocking out signals. That train was scheduled to arrive at Chicago's Millennium Station at 7:11 p.m.

The National Weather Service issued a tornado watch for Lake, Porter, Newton, Jasper, Benton, Cook and Will counties until 10 p.m.

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Storm Update

Updated: Saturday, July 18, 2015, 10:30 p.m. CST (Next Update, Sunday, July 19 @ 10:30 a.m. CST)

Damaging storms and high winds quickly passed through northern Indiana Saturday afternoon, which brought down trees and power lines, affecting nearly 17,000 NIPSCO electric customers at its peak. Northwest Indiana was the primary target, with LaPorte County being the hardest hit.

Crews were able to complete some assessment and restoration work before nightfall and approximately 9,000 customers remain without power.

While NIPSCO continues to work around the clock, many of these remaining customers in the LaPorte County area are likely to extend into early Sunday afternoon, with some individual circumstances that could last until later in the day.

NIPSCO continues to monitor for additional storm activity which may impact restoration efforts.

We understand that any service outage is an inconvenience. We thank you for your patience and understanding during the restoration efforts.

As in any storm event, the safety of the public as well as those working on the lines is our top priority. For your safety, please stay away from any downed power lines and power restoration crews working in your area.

Restoration Process

NIPSCO’s restoration process begins with repairing large transmission and distribution lines that supply electricity to large numbers of customers in large geographic areas – including critical customers such as hospitals and emergency response. Repairs to other lines that serve smaller groups of customers can’t be made until the larger lines feeding electricity to those areas are repaired.

When crews work on damaged trees during storms, they focus on repairs that are critical to our facilities and to restoring power and do not clean up or remove branches and debris that may be left behind. Contact your local municipal officials for more information on storm debris disposal.

Customers can receive regular updates on current number of customers affected, where outages are located and when power is expected to be restored, by visiting the NIPSCO.com/OutageCenter, via your mobile device at m.nipsco.com, and via social media with Facebook or Twitter.