Written By: Madison Glass

Tuesday, August 25, 2026

The Midwest has been experiencing some crazy weather this summer, and we are no stranger to that, here in the Region. On Tuesday, August 11, a derecho travelled across the Midwest, bringing 99+ mph straight-line winds that caused utter destruction to the southern Chicago suburbs and northwest Indiana. Additionally, the National Weather Service Chicago Office confirmed 8 tornadoes in Illinois and Indiana during this weather event. Immediately following the storm, the majority of the 219 Region lost power. 95% of Lake County and 45% of Porter County were without electricity, which is 60% of NIPSCO’s entire electric customer base. ComEd, northern Illinois’ electric provider, experienced similar outages and was able to restore power to 99% of their affected customers by August 16. On the other hand, it wasn’t until Sunday, August 23 that NIPSCO had restored power to just 90% of their affected customers. Needless to say, northwest Indiana was posed with some challenging circumstances during the long wait for power to be restored.

The biggest predicament following the storm was the fuel shortage. As soon as the power was gone, the people of northwest Indiana jammed the streets looking for an open gas station. Whether it’s charging devices out of the car or running a generator, gas becomes crucial during a power outage, and it goes quick. If a gas station was open, it was sure to have a line of cars around the block waiting to fill up, and not just one tank. Many filled extra gas cans to keep their generators running, which only made the fuel supply go quicker. To fill our trucks, our technicians had to drive 25 minutes to New Buffalo to find a gas station without a line. Thankfully, as power has been restored to the area, the fuel supply is no longer strained, and there is no longer a line around the gas station.

For us at ServiceMaster by Tekton, there was no time to waste in helping the community begin repairing the wreckage. Calls immediately began flooding in, so we had to adapt. Because there was no power; subsequently, there was no internet, which threw a huge wrench in our operations. Luckily, much of our crew was able to connect through a hot spot and continue taking calls. In moments like these, our team works better in a shared space, rather than their separate offices, so we fabricated a communal workspace in our warehouse. Here, our team was able to coordinate our plan of attack for assisting as many customers as possible. Amidst the chaos, one of our own experienced a basement flood, as well. Fortunately, she works for the right people! She was added to our triage list and we were able to mitigate the damage to her basement. Two weeks after the storm, our crew is still hard at work, helping our customers restore their homes to their original state. A natural disaster like this derecho can be painful, but ServiceMaster by Tekton can roll with the punches!

Don’t know what to do next? WE DO!