Shatiya Hardin, meanwhile, said the situation has been "absolutely horrible".

"At night we're sweating, we're irritable, we have children to look out for, elderly people who need electricity for oxygen tanks," she told the BBC's US partner CBS.

"It's not OK for us to continually be in survival mode."

Amid mounting frustration, local residents have launched a class-action lawsuit, accusing the utility company Nipsco of failing to manage the trees which brought down the power lines in the storm.

In the lawsuit, resident Jack Tipold said he was in the middle of dental surgery when the power failed.

He said he was forced to abandon the procedure and was discharged without adequate pain medication.

"I had all my teeth removed, and no medication for 48 hours. Let me tell you something, it was a struggle," he told CBS.

Nipsco has denied wrongdoing and said it would "vigorously" defend itself in court.

Faith leaders alarmed by the ongoing outage held a press conference on Saturday outside a local church.

"We come together today with one voice, asking those who have the power... to release the resources to our brothers and our sisters, our mothers and our fathers, because 12 days is long enough," he said, according to the Indianapolis Star.