NIPSCO ASSIGNS ADDITIONAL CREWS TO GARY AS RESTORATION EFFORTS NEAR COMPLETION

MERRILLVILLE, Ind. - Additional crews and support staff arrived in Gary this morning to help complete restoration of service to the remaining 550 customers still without electricity. The arrival of these additional crews will double the number of linemen now working in Gary to 125. Northern Indiana Public Service (NIPSCO) anticipates having these remaining Gary customers back in service by late Thursday evening. Gary suffered some of the worst damage from storms that swept through northwest Indiana early Tuesday morning. 25,000 customers across NIPSCO's service territory were without electric service at the height of the storm. As of this morning, only 10 customers outside of Gary remain without power. Crews continued to work through the night in Gary. Resources committed to complete the 24-hour-a-day restoration have included NIPSCO line crews and supervisors, outside electrical contractors, linemen from neighboring utilities and NIPSCO employees reassigned from other areas. Many of the remaining customer outages in Gary involve broken poles, downed trees and wires, and work in easements behind homes, making the restoration process more difficult. Homeowners should be aware that, in cases where the electric service weather head was damaged or torn from the house, an electrician may need to make repairs before NIPSCO can restore electric service. NIPSCO wants to remind customers to never approach downed power lines but instead call our customer service center, which is staffed 24-hours-a-day, at 1-800-464-7726 (1-800-4-NIPSCO) to report damage and outages.

NIPSCO ASSIGNS ADDITIONAL CREWS TO GARY AS RESTORATION EFFORTS NEAR COMPLETION

NIPSCO thanks our customers for their patience, understanding and cooperation during this difficult restoration effort. We also thank our dedicated employees who are working long hours to return electric service to our customers as quickly and safely as possible. Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), a subsidiary of NiSource Inc., is a regulated utility that provides natural gas to nearly 700,000 customers and electricity to 416,000 customers across the northern third of Indiana. NIPSCO is the largest natural gas distribution company and the second largest electric distribution company in Indiana. Information about NiSource Inc. and its subsidiaries is available via the Internet at www.nisource.com.