After storms hit on August 11, residents of Gary, Indiana, have been without power for two weeks. Because the city is majority black, the words "environmental racism" have been thrown around on social media.
OMG pic.twitter.com/rCsIvijO1L
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 24, 2026
You may have noticed the Community Note appended to that post, noting that repair crews were shot at on August 14, delaying repairs. The source was a local NBC affiliate.
Forcing people to live in power outages in 100+ degree weather for days while feeding energy to data centers is a form of political violence
— Ariana Jasmine (@arianajasmine__) August 25, 2026
It’s environmental racism https://t.co/MHpOZeAGmw
— February 1st♒️ (@TopDawgLo313) August 25, 2026
NBC News, which reported on Tuesday on the outages in the "mostly Black city," earned itself a Community Note:
Readers added context they thought people might want to know
While Gary was heavily impacted by the storm, utility provider NIPSCO reported that power restoration efforts faced delays because a utility vehicle was struck by gunfire on August 14, causing work to be temporarily paused.
We read the whole piece, which is mostly anecdotes from residents, and found no mention of gunfire.
Hi @shaqbrewster, @SelinaGuevaraTV, @csiemaszko.
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) August 25, 2026
Three of you wrote this story, yet not one word about repair crews being SHOT AT by residents, delaying repairs.
Why is that? Bad for the narrative? https://t.co/DTnhvHbpEf
Environmental racism? Who shoots at utility crews trying to restore power? That is just flat crazy.
— JMG (@JMark5977) August 25, 2026
I feel like there’s more to this story. Is there more to this story?
— 🫃🏼💉🇺🇦🇮🇷🇨🇺Hollaria Briden, Esq. (@HollyBriden) August 25, 2026
You intentionally left out the part where repair crews being SHOT AT by residents, delaying repairs.
— Spitfire (@RealSpitfire) August 25, 2026
How come you left the part out that repair crews were getting shot at?
— Articangel (@Artic_Angel1) August 25, 2026
Reminder, power crews by NIPSCO were shot at by residents when they came to assess storm damage
— RVA Chico 🌲 (@Chico23116) August 25, 2026
ABC News reported on the power outage but also declined to mention service crews being shot at.
Indiana's governor is requesting a state investigation as residents of Gary, Indiana, remain without power two weeks after storms swept through the area.
— ABC News (@ABC) August 25, 2026
ABC News' Alex Perez reports. https://t.co/VJC1ElMutu pic.twitter.com/3Glelow9z6
Yeah, that happens when you shoot at utility workers.
— National Rational 2.0 (@NationalRa2eph) August 25, 2026
Hey ABC, are you investigating the shootings that have occurred? If I were these linemen getting shot at, I’d be hesitant to go in that area as well.
— CarrieB 🇺🇸🇨🇱 (@Itscarriebowman) August 25, 2026
Hey @grok what political party and racial demographic have been running Gary, Indiana’s for decades? Also, what happened that made the crews take longer to restore power?
— Stephen Douglas Grant Jr. (@DugDugGuy13) August 25, 2026
The electrical workers were shot at. TLDR
— Ivan (@smoopie32) August 25, 2026
It's odd how that detail managed to escape reporters from both NBC News and ABC News. We do know for certain, though, that Gary is majority black. "On Monday, one of the poorest and blackest cities in America still had no power," Corey Williams and Laura Bargfeld reported. "Experts have noted that in cases of severe weather, natural disasters and especially extreme heat, the poor are most vulnerable."
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