On August 11, a powerful storm garnering winds that exceeded 100 miles per hour tore into Lake County, Indiana, causing a blackout that affected nearly 370,000 people. By now, most of Gary residents have regained electricity, but unfortunately are still devoid of power. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the event occurred almost 21 years to the date of Hurricane Katrina, another devastating weather event that disproportionately impacted Black people. Unfortunately, policymakers have been unable or unwilling to heed the lessons of Katrina. Gary, Indiana is unique in the racial composition of the city, nearly 80% Black and its historic overreliance on industry, and subsequent deindustrialization, has left the city tragically vulnerable to climate change, capitalism, and racism in a state that once boasted the largest Ku Klux Klan membership in the nation. Some, such as Mediaite’s Brad Slager has claimed that reporters have rushed to attribute Gary’s recent woes to racism, merely because it was an “easier angle.” Slager noted that much of Gary’s top officials are Black, thus making racism an unlikely culprit for the nearly two week blackout in Gary. Yet, Gary’s challenges are deeply rooted and go well beyond the actions or perhaps inactions of any current public official. Gary was founded in 1906, just outside of southern Chicago by the U.S. Steel Company. It is the namesake of the company’s cofounder Elbert Gary. As early as 1908, the city’s small Black population was forced to send their children to separate, underresourced schools. Even after the population increased due to the Great Migration, basic services, such as the city’s hospitals were closed to Blacks. By the 1960s, when Gary became predominantly Black, the city’s foundational steel mill closed. This ironically coincided with the election of Richard Hatcher as the city’s first Black mayor. Thus, Black people finally gained a modicum of power in a city that lacked a sufficient tax base, was bereft of resources, and had few friends in the state capital of Indianapolis.  That vulnerability has largely lasted until the present day. This has largely left the city vulnerable to predatory capitalism. For instance, the utility company that services Gary, the Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO), charges the highest rates of any investor-owned electric company in the state. And just last year, the company was approved for an additional rate increase. However, these higher fees have not resulted in improved service. Nearby Porter County has filed a lawsuit against the company alleging that NIPSCO’s failure to trim trees near power lines left customers especially susceptible to a power outage. While a regional problem, Gary was particularly impacted by the loss of power. After a week of the blackout, other nearby municipalities such as East Chicago, Dyter, Hobart, and Merrillville regained electricity. By that time, Gary had not even appeared on NIPSCO’s schedule for restoring power, according to the city’s mayor, Eddie Melton. Perhaps, the most deplorable aspect of Gary, is that we know that it will happen again. Maybe not Gary, but somewhere. The increasing severity of weather events has not curtailed the nation’s (and much of the world’s) addiction to fossil fuels. Severe natural disasters have devastated underserved communities in the United States such as St. Louis in 2025, and nations of color like Nepal last month. The ongoing migrant crisis in Africa is largely fueled by climate change (along with decades of colonialism and neocolonialism). Perhaps, the most frightening aspect of such disasters are their unpredictability. No one knows when they will come, where they will strike, nor who they will come for. We are all potentially in the path of destruction.