Remarks by Thomas M. McDermott, Jr.
15 remarks on the record, newest first · Page 1 of 1
- Play at 1:08
“Mayor's Address. Hi, Mayor. How are you? Thanks, Councilwoman. It's good to see you all. This is my report for August 24th, 2026. It's all about the storm. Because one day after our last meeting, Hammond got hammered by The worst storm I've probably ever been in. One of the most damaging storms we've experienced probably in our city's history. In roughly 20 minutes, 1.71 inches of rain fell, accompanied by winds exceeding 90 miles an hour. The Hammond Sanitary District plant peaked at nearly 90 million gallons of flow. Keep in mind, this plant is rated for 70 million gallons. It was peaked at…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 10:05
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 13:46
“That happened sort of, I don't know. I went to the first community meeting and I was just taking notes. I was literally just writing everything down I heard and I got done and I like put them all into the document and I just dropped it. And I don't know if NIPSCO is crazy about it, But I was just like, our people need to know something in Hammond. I dropped it, and I called each of you, and you all shared it, and I appreciate that. Go Hammond shared it. Really, between all of us and Go Hammond, we could reach almost everybody in the city. And we dropped it, and then I noticed other cities and…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 15:50
“This is the more mature mayor that's been here for a while. It's important for your mayor to have a relationship with NIPSCO for a number of reasons. So, like, it's important to have a relationship with NIPSCO for the mayor. It really is. It does our city a lot of good if NIPSCO and the mayor are on the same page.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 17:30
“Because the internet wasn't working. Right.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 17:52
“So that's just a great I didn't have internet for my house for the first few days and I had to come to City Hall to get stuff done Yeah, I was City Hall. Thankfully was unaffected. So I was getting my internet my power from City Hall just it's for subsistence”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 18:49
“we need to look at some type of ordinance about trees and power lines. I think it's something we need to talk about. If you're close to a power line, you should have some type of obligation as a city if it's our tree, but if it's your tree as a homeowner, it's not fair to your neighbors if you don't maintain your tree and it falls on the power lines and knocks everybody out for a week. I think we, I don't think these storms, Councilman Berry, we just went a month ago and Harrison Park lost multiple trees and they all fall the same direction. They fall from the west and they go to the east,…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 19:34
“I agree. I got the legal department looking at other ordinances to see what kind of options are out there, okay?”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 20:33
“If you know, I think it's better to give an answer, even though if we had a power outage today, and I tell you, Councilman, it's going to be five days before you get your power on, you're going to be pissed. And you're not going to want to hear it, but you're going to get ready for five days without power, right? Absolutely. If I say there's no answer, you think, well, maybe I'll have it back by tonight, right? And you approach life differently. If you know it's a prolonged outage, you should... And we should have all known, just based on the damage. I'd never seen damage like that in the…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 21:21
“And if you get it earlier, people are happy. If I tell you it's going to be next Saturday and I give it back to you on Thursday, you're happy as heck because it's not Saturday. I agree. I think NIPSCO has never been hit with something like this. And I'm not defending NIPSCO. I'm just saying it was extraordinary what happened. They say it's the biggest storm in their company's history. I believe them. And I think that they had a policy going into that. Whenever they have a power outage, they're like... If Councilman Berry has a power outage, NIPSCO's approach is like, don't tell Councilman…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 22:56
“It's scattered throughout the city, Councilman. It's not really. Small pockets? And it's to the point where it's house-specific issues. Okay. The electric weatherhead. Weatherhead. and one falls off, or if it's specific to that house damage. If you're out and all your neighbors are on, there's something specific to your house that needs to be fixed, and that's most of the cases left. And I know Nipsco's knocking them out, but it's obviously, if you're not turning on an entire neighborhood, you're just turning on one house, it's...”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 25:37
“That's my report. Any other comments? Hopefully, we don't have two weeks like we just had.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 25:46
“But I appreciate everybody. The council did a great job. I appreciate all your support. I think we did a good job communicating with the public. I mean, our job is to patrol the streets. We had 18 officers working every night, okay? Our job is to clear the streets. Our streets were cleared the next day, and we were driving around normally on Thursday. Our job is to help the homeowners out. We got 10-foot pile of rubbish in the Sportsplex parking lot right now from all over the city. The company we hired out of Mississippi, they have equipment. If there was a huge tree in your house, they had…”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 27:16
“I'm sorry that that's not my report. The governor's pretty tight with the president, so I imagine it's going to be received well. I'm not positive on that, though. But the governor's emergency response office is in the basement of City Hall, if anybody wants to go down there and talk. Tony Ferraro is the governor's guy from this area, and he reports to him in City Hall every day. Pretty extraordinary, two weeks. But I appreciate you all. Keep the good work. And I'm gonna go home and eat dinner. Thank you, Mayor. Thank you. Sorry, Mayor? Yes, sir.”
City Council · Aug 24, 2026
- Play at 28:00
Not quoted here: it may name a member of the public. Hear it at the meeting.
City Council · Aug 24, 2026