(La Porte County, IN) - La Porte County government offices are closed today because of yesterday’s storm.

 

County Commissioner Steve Holifield said the primary reason is some county government offices were still without power this morning.  County employees were allowed to leave work after the mid-day storm hit due to power outages and numerous fallen trees and power lines.

 

According to NIPSCO, the number of customers without power in its La Porte service territory dropped from over 16,000 yesterday to more than 14,000 this morning while outages in its Michigan City service territory remained at over 7,000.

 

NIPSCO has still not given any estimates on when power will be restored for all of its customers.  A number of Indiana Michigan Power Company customers are still without electrical service this morning.

 

According to the utility company, about 1400 of their customers are still without power in northern La Porte County.  Those outages are in areas like Springfield Township, Rolling Prairie and just north of Mill Creek.

 

Just a handful of gas stations in La Porte were open after the storm, creating long lines where pumps were still working at places like Kroger and Family Express on E. Lincolnway.

 

There was also a natural gas leak in the Holcomb street area in La Porte.  The leak caused by a fallen tree has since been repaired.