Before colonial settlers arrived in the 1700s, Indigenous people likely traveled to the island in the summer to take advantage of the abundant fish and crabs, according to the National Park Service. Many descendants of the original settlers with surnames like Crockett, Parks and Thomas have remained to this day. The isolation has allowed the development of a unique accent, one that some residents describe as a mix between "Southern" and "Elizabethan" English.
A severe thunderstorm moved through north-west Indiana on 19 August, dropping 6in of rain on Whiting, a largely industrial town, flooding streets and temporarily closing schools. The flooding also shut down the BP Whiting Refinery, the largest fuel refinery in the midwest, with a capacity to process around 400,000 barrels of crude oil a day. Residents living around the facility quickly reported oil and gas fumes in their flooded basements,
In the 1980s, there were 33 weather events that caused at least $1 billion in damages (inflation adjusted) - or 3.3 per year. With each decade passing, the yearly average of such events increases. In the 1990s, there were 5.7 such events per year on average, in the aughts the average was 6.7 per year, in the 2010s it was 13.1, and in the last three years it was 22 billion-dollar events per year, including 28 in 2023 - the most of any year.