Power restored for those who waited days for service

HOWARD TOWNSHIP, Ind.--- Power was finally restored along Helena Drive in Howard Township on Monday night. Most neighbors spent almost four days without heat or electricity because of Friday's winter storms.

"Friday night about 10:30 and I was in the bedroom and saw this bright blue flash and then the power went out," said Julie Weiler, who lives on Helena Drive. 

Weiler said the past three days have been a struggle trying to keep her family safe and warm.

"We’ve been drinking hot cocoa we’ve been bundled up with lots of blankets," said Weiler. "We have gone out during the day to try and stay warm and warm up a little bit but that’s kind of balanced with the pandemic still going on."

A few houses down from Weiler, Rich Palicki was one of the few people in his neighborhood with power thanks to a generator which he generously used to help neighbors.

"Yesterday his furnace went out, his heat exchanger burnt out. I ran a power cord over there and a water hose," said Palicki. "Anytime the power goes out I help him out over there."

Palicki says he's grown frustrated with how often the power goes out in his neighborhood when there is inclement weather.

"It’s very frustrating because we’re out here paying high bills and not getting any decent answer and I’ve been out here for 50 years," said Palicki.

Weiler says she's also lost plumbing as a result of the outage.

"We can’t flush the toilets," said Weiler. "So we fill up the tanks and flush the toilets once a day but it’s not great."

Weiler also says she's grateful for the crews who worked long hours to help restore power across Michiana.

"We just want to thank the crews for working so hard," said Weiler. "It’s been rough but we know they’re working really hard to get the power restored and we really appreciate the long hours and hard work they’ve put into get the power restored."