AES customers grow frustrated with power still not restored

INDIANAPOLIS — Frustration is rising for Indianapolis-area AES customers who haven’t had power since Wednesday.

As the temperatures are rising this weekend, AES reports power may not be restored until Sunday.

That’s not what customers like June Liggin want to hear. Liggin has been living without power since Wednesday night’s storm forced much of her neighborhood to go dark.

“I felt like this should have been taken care of on Thursday,” Liggin said. “Everybody else has gotten their power back on. How come we haven’t gotten ours back on?”

Liggin’s neighborhood says a power line has been down in the street since Wednesday, and that they are hoping AES can come out soon and remove it. AES has already restored power for most of the nearly 70,000 customers who were out at the peak of the storms.

AES Director of Communications Mallory Duncan said she hears the frustrations.

“We know our customers are frustrated,” Duncan said. “I just want to reiterate that we are working as quickly and safely as possible to restore power to all of our customers in a timely manner.”

Liggin said that with temperatures expected to soar this weekend, the sooner they get the power back on, the better. On Friday morning, Liggin was on her way to buy bags of ice to try and salvage what’s left in her freezer.

“We’ll probably just have to have some cool towels around us. We can’t turn the fans on because we don’t have any electricity,” Liggin said. “We just want something done as soon as possible. It doesn’t make any sense for this line to be down like this for what, two and a half days?”

Other people have a bigger issue with AES. Area resident Stephanie Reed said on Thursday that her house is the only one in her neighborhood without power. On top of that, she has not received any update from AES.

“I’ve called them twice, even our landlord for the property called them this morning, and still the same answer,” said Reed. “It makes me feel small. Like we just aren’t important.”

Reed and her husband both deal with asthma, along with taking care of three dogs. With each passing hour that they have no power, their frustration rises.

“Being without power, you get frustrated,” Reed said. “But again, with the heat coming, it’s even more frustrating. In the back of your mind, when it’s happening to you, you just wish they would hurry up. Because you don’t want to live like this. It’s disheartening.”