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Mayor outlines July 3 storm damage; sanitary district lost power and phone service
Summary
Mayor described heavy storms that dropped an estimated 3–5 inches, causing widespread flooding, downed trees and power outages (NIPSCO reported about 22,000 affected customers); Hammond Sanitary District lost primary and backup power and its diesel generator, hampering response and phone lines.
Mayor (speaker 7) told the council that severe thunderstorms on July 3 dropped roughly 3 to 5 inches of rain over a short period, producing widespread basement backups, downed trees and power outages across Hammond.
"Between 9:30 p.m. and midnight, multiple rounds of severe thunderstorms dropped 3 to 5 inches of rain in a short period of time," the mayor said. He said the National Weather Service issued a flash-flood warning for Hammond and identified Harrison Park as one of the hardest-hit locations, with numerous trees and power lines down.
The mayor said NIPSCO lost service to about 22,000 customers in its territory during the event, most in Hammond, and thanked the Hammond Sanitary District and city departments for their response. He said the Hammond Sanitary District lost its primary and backup power sources and had to run a diesel generator that was itself inundated; phones were out for days in some areas.
The mayor described the CSO (combined sewer overflow) basin as a $55 million investment that helps reduce basement backups and said the city will pursue additional stormwater-capture projects (designs already exist for a facility in the 5th District) though he warned such projects are costly and could affect rates. He urged residents who experienced basement backups to report them to the Hammond Sanitary District so the city can map flood patterns.
Why it matters: The mayor framed this as a system failure in extreme weather that strains utilities and emergency services; the mayor emphasized both immediate recovery (responders and crews worked through the night) and long-term capital projects to reduce future backups.
What the city said it can do: The mayor recommended installing backflow preventers, battery backups for sump pumps and using available sanitary-district or community-development programs to assist residents. He said the sanitary district and city will use reported incidents to create scatter maps to identify flooding patterns.
Limits: The mayor described the scale and impacts but did not provide a consolidated damage estimate or timeline for full repairs; references to future projects included preliminary design work, litigation-related holds and estimated costs that he said would likely require rate changes.
