Midwest Utilities Restore Power After 99 MPH Storms; 239,000 NIPSCO Customers Still Dark

The Midwest Storm Outage Emergency, Utility by Utility

Severe storms moving through the Midwestern United States this week knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of customers, with winds reaching 99 miles per hour and fallen trees bringing down utility poles and power lines. The first wave hit Monday evening, and a stronger round on Tuesday pushed outages across Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and northern Kentucky. As of Thursday, the largest remaining outage was in northwest Indiana, where Northern Indiana Public Service Company said 239,000 customers were still without power.

NIPSCO called the event the largest outage in company history, with a peak of 301,000 of its roughly 500,000 customers without electricity on Tuesday. Across the full storm, about 313,000 NIPSCO customers lost power at some point. The utility said damage to poles, power lines, substations and trees covers nearly its entire electric service territory, and it has not yet published restoration estimates because damage assessments are ongoing. The volume of outages also overwhelmed NIPSCO's automated outage alert system.

Other utilities faced similar damage. Duke Energy reported more than 180,000 Greater Cincinnati customers lost power Tuesday, and by Thursday about 37,800 customers in Ohio and 6,900 in Kentucky remained out, according to poweroutage.us. AEP Ohio had roughly 70,000 outages Tuesday evening and still had more than 27,000 customers offline Thursday, supported by out-of-state crews from Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky. ComEd in Illinois reported nearly 410,000 customers lost power; by Thursday it had restored about 328,000, leaving more than 61,000 without service.

Why Restoration Is Stretching Into Multiple Days

The same storm system is putting unusually heavy strain on utility restoration systems, not just on physical infrastructure.

NIPSCO's outage is a company record

NIPSCO's peak of 301,000 customers without power represents the largest simultaneous outage in the utility's history. Because about 60% of its customer base lost power at some point, crews are working across nearly all of its service territory rather than concentrating on a single storm corridor. The loss of its automated outage alert system under what the company called an "unprecedented volume of outage activity" is a meaningful operational detail: when alert systems fail, customers lose visibility into restoration timing and utility call centres face higher pressure even as field crews are still assessing damage. The absence of restoration estimates as of Thursday is consistent with a utility still mapping damage to poles, lines and substations.

Mutual aid is keeping the response moving

The utility response is regional and multi-state. AEP Ohio brought in crews from Indiana, North Carolina, West Virginia and Kentucky, and ComEd is using base camps at Daley College, Joliet Junior College and Prairie State College to support nearly 4,500 personnel, crews and contractors. ComEd's sister utilities on the East Coast contributed more than 150 overhead lineworkers and control room operators. That pattern reflects how large storm restorations now depend on moving specialized workers across utility footprints, which can limit how quickly local crews can be reassigned if additional storms arrive.

2026 is shaping up as an unusually severe weather year

ComEd says the August 9-11 storms mark its 19th major weather event of 2026, the highest number in more than two decades, and Illinois has recorded more tornadoes this year than any other state. Additional storms on Wednesday added more than 35,000 ComEd outages and disrupted repairs. That timing matters: when new weather arrives while damage from the previous event is still being cleared, restoration becomes a rolling operation rather than a linear recovery.

Next Steps for NIPSCO, ComEd and Affected Households

For households still without power in northwest Indiana, the immediate practical fact is that NIPSCO has not issued restoration estimates and its automated alert system is unavailable, so local emergency channel updates and NIPSCO's website are more reliable than outage-map notifications. The utility has warned that some communities face multi-day restoration; people with medical needs should act on local emergency guidance rather than waiting for a specific utility timeline.

• NIPSCO's 239,000 remaining outages, concentrated in northwest Indiana, will take multiple days to clear because damage spans poles, lines, substations and trees across nearly all of its service territory.
• ComEd's remaining 61,000 outages are concentrated in its south region, where downed trees, broken poles and damaged lines require extensive repairs; the base camps at Daley College, Joliet Junior College and Prairie State College are operational staging points, not public charging or food sites.
• Duke Energy and AEP Ohio still had roughly 45,000 and 27,000 outages respectively as of Thursday, so residents in Greater Cincinnati and the Columbus area should expect continuing localized repairs even as larger circuits are restored.
• Utility and regulatory planners should incorporate the August event into reliability reviews: ComEd has now had 19 major weather events in 2026, its highest in more than two decades, and Illinois leads the country in tornadoes this year, which strengthens the case for reviewing tree clearing, pole hardening and mutual-aid capacity.