Thousands in Indy still without power 2 days after winds

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — On Monday, Indianapolis Power & Light were still working to restore power to more than 2,000 people in the dark after Saturday’s wind storm. 

The power company said crews were trying to find ways to safely work around toppled trees on top of downed power lines. 

One team was cutting up tree trunks with chainsaws in a backyard near 86th Street and Keystone Avenue Monday evening. 

IPL said they have restored power for more than 50,000 people across the county, including a Lawrence neighborhood near 56th Street and Shadeland Avenue. Brian Stone, who lives in the neighborhood, said he spent the weekend struggling to keep his food cold and his house warm. 

“I’m on disability. We’re out money for the food that we had to throw out. We’re out money for the ice that we had to get,” Stone said. “We’re out food that we had to buy at a restaurant because we aren’t able to cook here.”

IPL and a team of contractors showed up less than an hour after News 8’s interview to work on a downed power line near Stone’s home. His lights were back on around 2 p.m. 

IPL says more than 300 linemen were in the field Monday.

The power company said it hoped to decrease outages to 1,000 customers by midnight to have everyone’s power restored by the end of Tuesday night.