This story was originally published by the Nashville Banner. Sign up for their newsletter at nashvillebanner.com/newsletters.
After days of joint press conferences on the winter storm, Metro and Nashville Electric Service met the public separately on Thursday as Mayor Freddie O’Connell called on the utility to provide better information to the tens of thousands of Nashvillians still without power.
“I think the thing we’ve been looking for is the same thing that Nashvillians who still lack power have been looking for, which is help us understand which communities they’re in, how much work is actually being done, how difficult the circumstances on the ground are at each outage site,” O’Connell said. “Help us with data, help us with visuals, help us with all those things. … Show the work, tell the story. Help people understand. Even if it’s bad news, share the bad news, because it’s better to have that than just no understanding of what is going on.”
The utility is managed by the Electric Power Board, members of which are appointed by the mayor. Since O’Connell took office in 2023, two of the five board seats have come up for appointment.
O’Connell praised lineworkers and those assisting from elsewhere who have been working around the clock to repair the electric grid.
“Every day that you’re wondering and waiting (whether your power will come back on) is a day where that frustration and anticipation builds,” O’Connell said. “We know that that frustration actually escalates to fear, and that’s what we want to make sure we’re getting that part of the response communicated to as many people as we can.”
Electric Service leadership held its own briefing an hour and a half later.
The utility has begun releasing additional information, including maps showing the locations of repair crews in the field. Brent Baker, COO at the utility, acknowledged residents’ desire for more information.
“We don’t want to give inaccurate information, but we absolutely have to give more information,” Baker said.
The Electric Service has been under heavy scrutiny in recent days amid reports that the utility was unprepared for the widespread outages caused by the winter storm and turned away help from workers.
Baker said utility workers across the region remained in place before it was clear where the heaviest impacts would be, which turned out to be Nashville. Hundreds of workers have since joined the utility, representing the largest workforce (and largest outage) in its history. Baker also said that the utility has to confirm crews’ training and familiarity with the Electric Service system before bringing them onboard.
BEWARE OF SCAMS
William Swann, chief of the Nashville Fire Department and director of the Office of Emergency Management, cautioned residents against scammers, including those offering tree removal or other storm response services.
“Any time a disaster happens, you have people that will come in and take advantage of citizens at their worst time,” Swann said. “Often, good people have a hard time believing that there’s bad people out there, and I think at this point, it’s very important for us to put this warning out to make sure that you verify credentials, ask for identification and license and proof of insurance from the contractors. Make sure that you get written contracts. Never rely on verbal agreements. Ensure that everything that you ask for is put into that contract. Make sure that you don’t get rushed into paying before the job is done. Be very skeptical. Beware of contractors who pressure you to make quick decisions, and often if it sounds much too good to be true, then it is. Do your due diligence.”
Swann and O’Connell also sought to dismiss rumors that Metro was refusing help from the Tennessee National Guard. They said around 40 members of the National Guard were in Nashville on Wednesday helping clear roads and that they would not work at shelters or conduct welfare checks at homes.
WHEN WILL MNPS RETURN?
As of Friday, Metro Nashville Public Schools has used all six of its allotted inclement-weather days for this school year.
The system’s schools and offices have been closed all week. Before and after-school care has been cancelled, along with after-school activities including sports, performances and parent meetings.
Looking ahead to any potential school closures next week, system spokesperson Sean Braisted told the Nashville Banner that the district is “consulting with the Tennessee Department of Education to determine our waiver options available due to the state of emergency.”
The Department of Education can grant a waiver of the 180 required days of classroom instruction to a school district in the event of a natural disaster. Under department guidelines, waivers are considered for events that “cause substantial damage or disruption to property or critical infrastructure” and impact the community and school operations “beyond regular inclement weather.”
Thursday, 21 system schools remained without power, and seven had partial outages. A total of 71 public schools experienced power outages this week. The district has not recorded major structural damage to any facilities, “other than fallen trees and debris that is being removed,” according to Braisted.
“However, impacts from prolonged power outages and extreme cold across Nashville, including broken pipes, roof leaks and HVAC issues, are being addressed as they are discovered,” Braisted wrote in an email.
Remote learning is not viable due to continued power outages affecting households across the city. While system schools sent students and staff home with their devices ahead of the storm, the district anticipates using any inclement-weather days to cancel school before instituting remote learning.
Yet schools have readiness plans in place, including “device assignment and take-home procedures, and established schedules and links for synchronous instruction through Microsoft Teams and Schoology,” in case remote learning is required.
This article first appeared on Nashville Banner and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.