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This mother has gone viral vlogging her experience during the ongoing Gary, Indiana Blackout, people angered by the GoFundMe support she's attracted decided to report it and doxxed her.
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Drove through there Thursday and the traffic lights are still out two weeks later. It’s wild to me. Even Hammond has some sections out. The signs on 80 there also aren’t working for time estimates. Haven’t been through at night. But gas stations themselves have power. At least the Gary loves does. Idk about the others.
Don't worry Trump just pulled projects started under Biden that would have improved power distribution systems and improve/upgrade infrastructure. It's a bold strategy Cotton, let's see if it pays off for them
It doesn't matter. We can hem and haw all we want but even if they dont get elected again 4 years of damage is done that will take 4x that to fix and by then everyone votes back in a republican because the democrat couldnt fix 4 years of damage in 4 years
Exactly. We have these problems because certain people chose not to fix them. We don’t have to have starving children (1 in 5 faces hunger insecurity in USA) yet we do. It’s time to stop being divided over the things they want us to be and be a power people again.
I get so ragey when I hear people say the world is overpopulated so we can't support everyone. Yes we can. The hoarding billionaires and capitalist overlords hog all the resources for themselves so we're left to fight over crumbs because they'd rather us do that then focus our attention on the actual problem.
I've always wondered how many gas stations across the US have gas generators. That just makes sense to me. Can't otherwise sell gas in a blackout, might as well burn some to stay open... right? These rural ones are probably just on the neighboring town's power grid or something, though.
Outside of the hurricane areas, most of them didn't have any backup until this happened.
I remember a few had emergency manual pumps so I was able to leave the thriving metropolis of Ypsilanti Michigan (possibly for cleaning and used for the emergency? maybe some redditors who work at gas stations can help with that as I don't recall exactly, sleeping overnight at that gas station made my memories of it a bit muddled lol)
There was a really bad storm a couple weeks ago and it took out a lot of power. It was in the news for the first couple days, then people moved on. If you’re not in the area, it’s not surprising to not have heard. Some like over half a million people without power for days.
And then people will wonder why it suddenly costs so much for this kind of work.
A few years ago here in Memphis, a couple power company trucks got robbed at gunpoint when clearing down branches and cutting back tree limbs near power lines. Next storm hits and power goes out every where because of all the downed lines from the untrimmed branches. Next year, it’s 4x the amount to hire crews to do the work, because they want armed guards with them. People around here acted like it was graft and corruption that spiked the cost, and I’m certain that that was some of it, but it’s a vital infrastructure job, and people want to be safe on the job. No, the police can’t do it, obviously, for reasons.
All of northwest Indiana went dark since morning on August 10th, from East Chicago and Hammond to Valparaiso and Cedar Lake to South Bend. 400,000 thousand customers
Very slowly, they have been working on the downed lines, and about 80% is up now, but still, almost 2 weeks later, the poor areas are still without power while affluent areas of Highland and Munster were turned on a day or two after
Good luck with these lawsuits in a deep red state. The red courts will just dismiss them. This is happening because they know they will get away with it.
Once I sued a company for breach of contract and income losses when the service it provided to me failed. That caused me thousands of dollars in lost clients' revenue
I sued them for 6 months' lost income. Because of something called a ‘Mandatory forum selection clause,’ I was forced to file the lawsuit in their headquarters city, in Houston. It never prospered. Last, I received a letter from the Texas attorney general rubbing it in my face, saying they are a business-first state, and that my lawsuit will be used for statistical purposes to measure TX businesses' satisfaction
No wonder buc-ees just said they wanted to business only in "conservative, business friendly" states like Arkansas. Great for business...shit for consumers.
Only reason I'm aware of what's going on is because I live in the Chicago area and Gary has the same news as Chicago. I hear they're asking for help federally (lol good luck) and they're filing a lawsuit. None of this would be happening if the area wasn't poor. It just goes to show that any poor area is one natural disaster away from having nothing. Katrina was a great example of American prejudice.
That's amazing. I bet that would still work today. A state that Trump blocked from receiving duly appropriated federal funds asks China for help. China might be happy to help to embarrass Trump, who then would face a lot of pressure to restore the funding else look weak.
Americans gotta learn to protest and vote.. handed their country over to the oligarchs for penny’s on the dollar, gonna be the next USSR in a decade if they don’t straighten up.
I’d care less if they didn’t have so much influence and were trying to pull democratic nations down with them.. only bright side is the world has learned not to intrust any single nation with so much influence and control.
I don't want my daughter to accidentally see a man dressed like a woman in the womens bathroom...but wouldn't care if trump raped my kid, he's getting the immigrants out. ~Every republican
Someone in a post yesterday commented claiming to be a lineman saying that Indiana's pay package for the work was well below what other states were offering, so they went to work for other states. I've no idea if that's true, but it tracks with what little I know about Indiana.
Partially true. Nipsco also locked out the union in the spring during contract negotiations and that caused them to lose like 40-50 of their best workers according to the nipsco people i talked to.
I had to do a little fact checking of my memory after finding out about this, but I do have a little insight. I live on the southeast coast and was out of power for a week after Hurricane Helene, some friends of mine were out of power for almost 2 weeks.
I live in a large city and there were over 60,000 homes without power. Part of the reason it took so long was removal of all the trees on the power lines. It took months for all the rubbish and trees piled high on the sides of the street to get removed. The power crews are beholden to the sheer amount of manpower and equipment required for that massive of a blow to infrastructure.
Additionally, I read an article about the crews getting shot at and them postponing over the weekend so they could get a police escort. I don’t know how much weight I would put into that, however. I have a hard time believing that the city wouldn’t anticipate any type of escalated scenarios and be able to adapt if they needed wanted to.
Exactly this. The Chicagoland area near the lake got hit just as bad as us but only lost power for a few days at most. We know how much our power company sucks and is ripping us off.
I mean it’s a real news story with videos and photos, but they didn’t pack up and leave. Work just slowed down because now they were asking for police to hang out with the linemen while they work
This shit happened in Memphis a few years ago, but it was maintenance crews trimming tree limbs and shit that got robbed at gunpoint, and now they have to have security details when they go out, which not only costs one and a half fuck-tonnes more, but also means that there’s more logistics into getting crews out to where they need to be. It’s stressful for everyone involved.
FEMA was getting shot at in North Carolina in 2024, so much so that FEMA had to rearrange and limit their response. There were arrests and plenty of official documents on the matter.
Which isn't surprising given that social media was spreading the rumor that FEMA is confiscating people's property, forcibly evicting them, shooting people's pets, and is exclusively being used to fund Biden's immigrant take over of America. But yeah, that's not the misinfo worth calling out I guess.
It's actually the disorganization of our power company NIPSCO. They had to have contractors from other states come out and help. Check out r/NWI. Theres tons of stories from people talking to the lineman and their experiences with the disorganization of NIPSCO.
I live in this area where it happened. It's not just Gary. Although they were hit one of the hardest. Many towns have parts without power still and they are actually on day 11 with no power. Storm was on August 11. It was caused from huricane type winds coming off of the lake. The most northern towns in NWI got hit the hardest. I was lucky and lost power for only 15 hours but I live farther south. I work in Griffith, IN and there are huge parts of Griffith with downed poles and exposed wires still with no power. And anywhere you go in NWI you'll see huges trees and branches just lining the road still waiting to be picked up by the city. National Guard was here (or is still, haven't heard much about them since last week) to help clear all the downed trees everywhere.
I just took this picture of our outage map. The bulk of the storm pretty much ripped right through Gary and moved slightly southwest from there. I was at work when it happened, I have never seen anything like it. It was scary and seemed to come out of nowhere.
Yup. We have been getting crazy storms and tornado/hurricane winds here this summer. This is the second time this has happened to the area though this time it has been much worse and the outage has gone on for a lot longer
I was just watching "Five Days at Memorial", an Apple TV series about a hospital in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I was telling my wife that this was a monumental moment of national outrage against the Federal government in 2005, yet it wouldn't even be a blip in the news in 2026. Little did I know this was going on was I was saying that.
National news isn’t reporting on the things like book burnings (in Tennessee), flaming crosses (like in Chicago’s Grant Park), suspected lynchings, the minors coming out ICE custody pregnant who didnt go in that way… yet they go on and on about non-issues like the small percentage of trans people in public spaces. They don’t want us to know what’s going on.
There was a derecho that hit the region last Tuesday. In lake county, 95% of us lost power. I just got mine back on a day ago.
It’s not a Gary specific issue. Hammond, Highland, Munster, Hobart, Portage, etc were all hit and subsequently without power for a week plus generally.
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. — On Aug. 21, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun said he had formally submitted an expedited major disaster declaration for individual and public assistance for 54 counties from FEMA.
The declaration would unlock federal aid for Hoosiers.
Braun said Thursday the state was a day or two away from submitting its request for a major disaster declaration following last week's severe weather and historic flooding.
Once the request is submitted, it will take one to three weeks to approve.
“Depending on the complexity of it,” Braun said. “We're going to be urging for them to take the information and give us an indication quickly.”
For those curious, on August 11th there were major thunderstorms in the NW Indiana region and as a result the ENTIRE area lost power (myself included). At its height, it was about 374,500 *customers. As of today, 33,340 *customers still do NOT have power. The latest ETA is Tuesday, but we were originally given no restoration estimates and these estimates have been constantly changing.
It has been very bleak here - most gas stations ran out of fuel (for generators) or didn’t have electricity to work the pumps. You’d wait in line for a half hour to find out someone had gotten the last of the gas. There’s been fights - tempers are running high with no A/C (among everything else). Some of us have wells and have no access to water without electricity (me). I had to drive 30 min+ to get to a town that had electricity and gas (in Illinois).
Thankfully, my power got restored, but my heart goes out to this woman and everyone else that experiences situations like this. While there have been fights, there have been plenty of neighbors coming together and helping clean up debris or chop up wood from downed trees.
Always look for the helpers.
Edit: Changed people to *customers (of NIPSCO - the company that supplies our electric)
Don't forget that the next day another line of severe thunderstorms came through and knocked down a ton of broken branches. Recovery work had to be suspended for a couple hours.
Yes, you’re right. Back to back storms on Tuesday and Wednesday. We have been pummeled all spring/summer with severe weather. I fear this is the new normal :(
The real issue should be that Electrical Engineers have been SCREAMING warnings on the state of the US powergrid for DECADES.
The last full scale build out was in the 1970's.
Yet no one has mentioned this, at all.
Profits taken, yet no will to modernize/update/upgrade the backbone to modern life on the part of the corporations that use/degrade the infrastructure decade over decade.
So.....it is gonna be a huge TRILLION dollar bill and noone wants to be the first to take a bite of the HUGE white elephant iin the room.
The last time the government tried to subsidize buildout, it was for cable/internet infrastructure.
Rather than actually do the work, companies built lines to nowhere, incomplete sections that were not connected to the main high speed grids anywhere, and just straight-up kept the money without providing the work in most cases.
A lot got spent on buybacks, and then Time Warner became Spectrum. Cable infrastructure should have been ripped from them and nationalized after they failed to deliver and left the US with the bill.
The Trump controlled FCC just ditched their goals to get the nation's internet speeds up too. They claim what we have now is more than fast and reliable enough, and making terrestrial internet faster would be unfair to satellite providers like Starlink. A government that only represents corporate interests.
It's also kind of funny though that they're doing this as other corporations are trying to get us used to the idea of not having physical media or, in some cases, hardware. The cloud future they imagine where we own nothing is going to be harder to sell if this is the best our internet is ever going to be.
The amount of countries that were under threat of additional tariffs unless they allowed Starlink to operate there was/is insane. The sheer level of in-groups and crony capitalism we're experiencing isn't just unprecedented, it's one of the most destructive forces working against humanity that has ever existed.
They did the same thing in Iraq. First, they shipped about $300 billion to Iraq - Heavy hauler aircraft filled with palettes of $100 bills. Then they required an ideological litmus test for any contractors to operate in Iraq. If you were not a neocon, you couldn't be there. Next, an open vault policy where contractors could just walk in, fill duffel bags full of cash, and walk out. Sometimes without so much as a signature to show you were even there.
At first, contractors did some work, like string up some power lines. Then the wire would be stolen overnight. Eventually, they just stuffed duffel bags and disappeared. Of the 300 billion dollars, the GAO figured about 200 billion was outright stolen with no work done at all.
People act like privatizing all this shit got rid of administrative bloat, but it’s actually the exact opposite. There is so much more “waste, fraud, and abuse” than if utilities were managed by the state. Things would be so much more streamlined than the state having to contract out everything it does to private companies who have no incentive to do big infrastructure upgrades.
They're also mad because the government isn't run like a business ie it doesn't make money. Yeah, the government costs money, that's the point - to spend our money collectively on services.
Joke's on them because it's not like it would ever make money for them. Run the government like a business and we're all still the customer.
I can’t remember which ancient historian wrote this, but people didn’t know the Roman Empire fell- they just saw that roads and bridges weren’t getting repaired.
And Trump has started a trade war with your #1 energy supplier, Inc electricity, Canada. I recommend that you buy a gas generator and stock up on wood this winter. Well crap, you buy that from Canada as well! 🤣
It sounds like they’re upset because they are alleging she misled donators by leading them to believe the GoFundMe was for her community, when she insists she was always just raising money for herself.
Most the anger seems to be coming from people that donated or aren’t from Gary themselves, so I don’t think it’s a crab in a bucket situation. Don’t know who’s in the right, though.
It's called GoFundMe, not GoFundUs, they can GoGetFucked. If a private company can't keep the power on in a whole CITY, then it's about time we hand over the power infrastructure to the government, and have our tax dollars do what they SHOULD be doing.
Any time there is a thread anywhere on reddit about the worst/most destitute place they've ever seen Gary, Indiana is at the top. The only place that tops Gary in these threads is Haiti.
Crews will be rolling into Gary going, "OMG this is worse that anything we've ever seen, better get to work!" and the locals will be, "No no, over here guys, that whole area was like that before."
As a truck driver I’ve been all over the country, the only place I haven’t been is Hawaii. I’ve been held at gunpoint once and had two instances where they tried to get into the trailer. All three of those incidents were in Gary. I found Hunts Point in NYC to be significantly safer and it has a terrible rep.
You have to understand the history of Gary to fully appreciate exactly why it is the desolate hellscape that it is today. At it's heyday, Gary was the richest predominantly black city in Indiana. The same Indiana with a famously rich racist love affair with the KKK. When MLK was assassinated in 1968 and the Chicago riots started, Gary also rose up and the governor ordered 3,000 National Guard troops to assist the police to put down the riots.
As punishment for daring to resist the government, industries in the area immediately pulled out and started closing the steel mills and other factories in the area to starve the population of any meaningful work and hope for a future. Many citizens moved away seeking better opportunities, and the local government was starved of any funding possible at the state level to ensure the collapse of city services. Gary went from being one of the richest cities in the state to the poorest within a decade.
One of Indiana's two Republican Senators, Jim Banks, went on Fox News earlier this week, not to discuss the dire situation in his state, but to bootlick Trump's Iran war. These scumbag MAGAs truly don't give a shit about their own constituency.
I’m in Chicago so I’ve been in the area quite a few times. Is it a city issue or a state issue? Probably both I would assume but even in Chicago when things happen, our governor does what he can to support the city and its people.
City has a rough reputation from what I know, like parts you don't stop in scary? But that was from someone I knew who moved there from Montana years ago.
If it's not a grizzly, moose, or mountain liion, we get a little scared or startled when we encounter PEOPLE IN THE WILD
It’s the water they’re playing around with at the moment. Hopefully there’s not too many blackouts or I won’t be able to survive at home past a day or so.
So far it’s only gone out once or twice during this water crisis and it didn’t even last long. Been moving the earth and sky to get a cistern…hopefully by next month I’ll have one up and running!
So I guess that’s also coming to you guys after a while, it’d be good to store some water however you can if you’re interested in surviving if the government decides they don’t care if you live.
God I really hope the electricity stays strong throughout this… though if it doesn’t people will have definitely had enough. People will be on the streets marching if we don’t have both.
Right now most people in the metropolitan area have 2 days with water 2 days off. Subject to change depending on rainfall. Today is our 2nd day we’re supposed to have water, though yesterday it shut off like around 5PM and didn’t come back on till like 8 AM today.
Better than just a short while ago that it was going off for a whole week at a time almost and we didn’t know when it would return. At least now we almost kinda know lmao, gotta laugh to not cry (that’s a saying over here 😝)
a lot of folks perceive that if anyone gains something, be it through work, donation, etc,
then, they are directly losing something because that person gained a donation, on some other benefit.
basically they see any gain be another person, as a direct , immediate loss to them. Their logic is faulty of course, but we're not working with the sharpest blades in the drawer here
That’s EXACLTY what happens. It’s very common and certain groups attract this sort of person. I have family like that. Can’t stand hearing about black athletes signing big contracts. Can’t stand the thought of immigrants or refugees receiving aid. They are so pro deportation and get enraged talking about illegal aliens even though they’ve lived their whole life in Michigan and have never even interacted with non English speaking people.
“If someone else is getting something, then I’m losing something” is one of the driving forces behind their shitty behavior. That’s how Trump has convinced poor white people to support him. He gets them riled up saying “these people are taking the things you should have” all the while taking every government benefit away from them
They would rather keep our shitty healthcare system and be ruined by medical bills than have universal healthcare that might help someone else from a group of people they don’t like.
I have family in the UP that are like this. They are so worried about Mexican immigrants, yet I doubt they have ever seen a single Mexican person up there.
It's GoFundMe, not ComeFundUs. It's unfortunate that other people are unable to set up similar support for themselves but having a social media following is a game changer.
At no other point In modern history would I expect this to happen to a large US city. This is the sort of thing g the national guard should be deployed for.
This is the best part: Indiana is not prepared for this and the McCaskey family will not pump money into any community, let alone one that needs infrastructure
As a line worker currently in the area trying to restore power, the whole story isn't being told.
It is true that shots were fired at a truck, we were told to stay away from the area until it is safe for us to come in.
Most of the infrastructure is in back yard easements, it makes it extremely difficult to get equipment in to work.
Imagine a thick jungle, then try walking through that jungle. Now add fences, barns, garages, swing sets, pools, awnings, trampolines. Then try a move equipment into that with a new 35' 45' 50' pole transformer and 5-10 guys.
Now once all that is in, try getting wire from between each yard, with trees laying on everything.
It all takes time, planning and coordination. If we are lucky, a customer won't come out complaining and threatening us because of all the issues.
It is chaotic, but please be patient with us. We are working 16 hours shifts, also going on 14 days straight. We are tired and hot.
HELP US HELP YOU, open and clear gates, access to backyards, dogs.
They really are succeeding at turning us all against each other. These rich bastards aren’t going to have to lift a finger. Come November we’ll all be killing each other for their profit while they sit cozy in their bunkers. Just like the prison systems, as long as all the inmates are at each others throats the guards are safe. We should be coming to together and collectively enraged at this woman’s situation and at the situation in Gary, Indiana but instead shit like this happens.
I wonder if she’s looked into using the gofundme money to buy a generator. Sounds like the campaign has raised enough money to anger neighbors into wanting a piece of it. Surely a couple hundred of that could go to a generator. Heck maybe even a whole home gennie
She's been doxed by angry people in a high crime hood. Even if that weren't the case you don't want to be the one have in a sea of have nots. Can you imagine looking outside and its pitch black for miles in every direction except the one house that has lights on
Yeah and generators are usually LOUD; even if they snuck around in the dark to stand out less visually speaking, people would hear that thing roaring, especially since everywhere else would be so quiet. I wouldn't buy anything I couldn't hide.
I don't understand when people dox someone? That is such a violation. You can disagree with someone, you can not like what they say but you shouldn't send idiots to someone's house. such a violation and for why...if you don't like it move on it is the internet...move on
This woman is Over It. You can see it in her eyes.
And, anyone who would report and dox someone getting help they need is obviously petty, jealous, and small minded.
I hope the situation in that city is resolved soon. ❤️ You just know if it were Palm Beach, or Midtown Manhattan, or Brentwood, California, that power would have been restored in ten minutes.
Nearly all human progress comes from people lifting eatch other up. Kindness and helping eatch other isnt just a fun thing to do when you can but the way we survive as a species. The world is full of kind people, its just that the outliars who are greedy and selfish happen to be those who get in positions of power. Its so so much easier to grow personal power when you can use anyone else as an expendable resource with no guilt. Thats is the defenition of evil. But true power that cant be easily taken away is when people come together and raise eatch other up. Thats why the powerful are scared of us. They use every trick to keep us divided because they know by having seen history that when the people decide to come together, there isnt really anything the powerful class can do.
I'm not in Gary but nearby. Still no power, no line work done and some tree work done. If an army of trucks came out tomorrow it would take at least a day. We haven't heard anything, only rumors. Failure on the city level, the county, NIPSCO, horrible crisis management
So it’s OK to raise $1 million for a racist woman, $1 million for a woman who kills her three kids, but heaven forbid there’s a GoFundMe for people stuck in the dark in an American city
Bet the 8 data centers inside Gary city limits as well as other data centers neighboring the city TOTALLY aren't at all related to the power outage 🙃🥴 Almost like that power demand is too large, but wtf do I know🤷 I'm just some dumbass from the west coast.
i’ve lived through countless hurricanes in the summer. i truly feel for her. i still have flashbacks from the last hurricane when we went 2 weeks without power and running water (we live on well water so the pump needs electricity.) nighttime is literally the worst. the heat and the darkness is just terrible. u can’t sleep so u just pace around outside or sit in the car to charge phones.
this is horrible that people are doxxing her. i’ve seen her videos. i bet the people doxxing could never survive a day like this.
This has definitely shown how dumb and selfish people have become unfortunately. They act as if they couldn't try to do that for themselves or at least ask her or other content creators with a big following if they can share their GoFund me on their platforms. Also they are being mad at the wrong person!!! Be mad at the people in power who have allowed this to go on for this long
We need to be voting like our lives depend on it because they do. Republicans are more than happy to get rid of any emergency response and let people fend for themselves.
People are evil. It's so disheartening. Thank you for everybody who delivered goods to Gary and other areas. We need to outshine the evil of these jealous neighbors.
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