The Chicago Bears donate $200,000 to assist residents in northwest Indiana and southeast Cook County following severe storms
The Chicago Bears announced a $200,000 donation to support storm relief efforts in southeast Cook County and northwest Indiana. The contribution is split equally between Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago and Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Gary. This donation follows a severe weather system that left thousands of residents without power for nearly two weeks. In northwest Indiana, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (Nipsco) reported that over 33,000 customers remained without electricity on Saturday. While the utility company has made substantial progress in restoring service, a class-action lawsuit has been filed alleging that Nipsco failed to properly manage vegetation, leading to preventable outages. Nipsco denied these allegations, noting that its vegetation management spending has more than doubled since 2016. Governor Mike Braun has requested a major disaster declaration from the federal government to help with recovery efforts, which estimate property damage costs to have topped $5 billion. The administration announced an emergency declaration for the affected Indiana counties, providing access to state relief funds.