Bailey invited ABC7 into her home, where she described living conditions that she says have become increasingly difficult since the storms.
"It's so hard," Bailey said, "because when you walk in through here, it's very hot."
As she walked through the house, Bailey pointed to coolers filled with ice being used to preserve food.
"We have to keep everything in coolers, ice," she said.
Opening her refrigerator, she showed the impact of days without electricity.
"You look in this refrigerator, it is empty. Everything is spoiled."
Bailey said the heat inside the home has become overwhelming. A thermostat inside the house showed temperatures climbing into the 80s.
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"This is how it feels in here. If you sitting here, walking, I'm sweating," she said.
She said even opening the door for relief is not always possible.
"If we let this door open, bugs coming in here. So, we can't even open the front door for air because you got bees, bugs, everything coming in here. It's so hot."
Without power, Bailey said much of her day is now spent looking for places to charge devices and cool off.
"I've been going there every day to charge my phone, charge iPads, to try to stay cool," she said, referring to a gas station in South Holland.
Bailey said shelters are not a practical option for her family because her 3-year-old son has autism.
"Like I told them at the YMCA, I have an autistic child in the house. He screams and hollers. There's no way he can be in a situation like that," she said.
Inside the home, Bailey showed how she is trying to keep her son comfortable.
"No airflow up in here. And I got the baby," she said.
"He's getting airflow, from a battery-operated fan."
Bailey said the outage has also created financial hardships.
"We have no food," Bailey said. "I had a deep freezer full of food, everything wasted."
Bailey continued, "I'm wasting all my money going to gas stations, trying to keep gas in the car to charge the phone at nighttime."
She said she has also seen other families facing similar struggles.
"I've been going to the gas station seeing people with babies in a car, like literally in a car, like literally in gas station bathrooms changing and babies saying that they've been out here sleeping," Bailey said.
As the outage stretches on, Bailey said the emotional toll is growing.
"So, for me to go through this, this is a lot," she said. "This is just hard for me to even stay here and talk. I'm in hot house. And I am in here, burning up, sweating from head to toe."
Bailey continued, "Don't nobody want to go through this. Don't nobody want to go through what I am going though, and this is just too much! I can't take it!... It is just not right. It's not right. I'm just getting turned away every time I go somewhere to help."
Bailey said the nights have been especially difficult.
"This is how we're seeing at nighttime, a flashlight. This is how we're seeing," Bailey said.
She described the ongoing situation in simple terms.
"This is suffering here. I'm really suffering and I just don't want to suffer like this," she said.
Despite her frustrations, Bailey said residents will need to support one another as recovery continues.
"We have to work together in the community. If we don't, there will be no community. There will be no community," she said.
Until power is restored, Bailey said one of the biggest challenges facing vulnerable residents, including families with children, older adults, and people with disabilities, is accessing available assistance.
For now, she said she is doing what she can with the resources she has left, hoping they last until the lights come back on.
Another Gary resident, Inez Barry, said she has been without power for six days while caring for her paralyzed son.
"I have a son at home who's you know paralyzed as well too, so it's miserable for him too as well. Just not having no Wi-Fi, not having internet, not having air conditioner, but just got to be patient," Barry said.
Without a reliable way to keep her phone charged, Barry said she has had to find alternative solutions.
"Just usually go to my car, and I just powered up in my car as well too, because it goes dead so quickly," she said.
Despite the prolonged outage, Barry said she remains hopeful.
"We can endure for a night, but joy coming in the morning. I know it's just temporary," she said.
NIPSCO hopes to restore power for all NW Indiana residents by Friday night
Meanwhile, NIPSCO says crews continue working to restore service in some of the hardest-hit communities, and the company is hoping to restore power for all of their northwest Indiana customers by Friday night.
Officials said the storms and resulting outages have created significant challenges for customers and restoration crews.
"It's been, it's been really unprecedented. Not just the storm and the size and the magnitude of this storm, but we've had really storm after storm," said Vince Parisi, president and chief operating officer at NIPSCO. "We're still working hard here in Gary and Hammond and a few other places to get that. We're hoping by the end of the week we'll have everybody back on."
NIPSCO said last Tuesday marked the most destructive storm to the power grid in recent history.
"The amount of damage across the service territory, to individuals' homes, and certainly to our infrastructure has been very significant," Parisi said.
Gary resident Hampton Hinton said his home was spared from storms damage.
"I looked out the door, I saw the tree on the car.. I just closed the door, I didn't even want to process that right then," Hinton said.
But he joins thousands of people who have been without electricity for days.
"I had to throw out all my food out and the bad part about it, I had just went grocery shopping and bought a lot of stuff that I planned to barbecue for the rest of the summer," Hinton said.
The same goes for Annie Williams, who also lives in Gary. She's been using a generator in the meantime, as she waits for her power to be restored.
"It's hard getting around," Williams said. "I don't have a car because I have neuropathy, and I try to call people but the internet was down, so had to use my legs to buy a generator.
Other northwest Indiana communities, including Dyer, Merrillville and Hammond, are also experiencing outages.
Organizations, government offer help for impacted NW Indiana residents
One organization, Eight Days of Hope, traveled from Louisiana to assist with relief efforts and is helping serve nearly 2,000 meals a day to families who have spent nearly a week without electricity.
"It's always a privilege no matter where we go, which part of the country, just to be able to serve," said Darren Bellanger of Eight Days of Hope.
Bellanger said the group's commitment to the community will continue as long as assistance is needed.
"We're not going to leave until we feel that the need is no longer," he said.
Across from the YWCA of Gary, Eight Days of Hope, NIPSCO, the Urban League, the Salvation Army and other organizations are distributing meals and supplies to help residents cope with ongoing outages.
Relief efforts were scheduled to continue through the evening, with another round of meals available at the Gary distribution site beginning at 4:30 p.m. The site was expected to remain open until 6 p.m.
Late Monday, Indiana Gov. Mike Braun announced $5,000 grants to help storm victims across the state. The money can be used for basic needs, including food and clothing.
Braun also thanked President Donald Trump on Monday for approving an emergency declaration for flooding and latest week's tornadoes.
South suburban leaders seek federal assistance as cleanup continues
The same storm system also hit parts of Chicago's south suburbs. Hundreds of trees were knocked down in the area.
On Sunday, leaders in the south suburbs called on Gov. JB Pritzker, who visited hard-hit Lansing on Friday, to ask the federal government for help. On Monday, the governor said he would.
But that there is a process to try and meet thresholds that the governor says the Trump administration has raised.
The good news in Illinois is that ComEd says all customers impacted by last week's storms should have their power back on.
Now, some of those same crews are heading to Indiana to help power restoration efforts there.
People living in Gary and other parts of northwest Indiana are still wrapping their heads around the destruction left behind following last week's powerful storms.
Several trees were uprooted and crushed people's homes, and crews were out Monday morning, removing down trees.
And some people just got back inside their Indianapolis homes on Monday following days of high water.