NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell praised Nashville Electric Service's initial storm response but called for improved communication with customers as the utility works to restore power to thousands still in the dark following the snow and ice storm last weekend.
"We have been eager for NES to increase the amount and type and delivery of their effectiveness of their communication," O'Connell said.
The mayor's comments came during a news conference where city officials gathered to discuss ongoing recovery efforts. Notably absent from the room was NES leadership, who had been present at previous briefings. NES held their own separate briefing hours later.
NES officials warned there is no clear timeline for full power restoration but said they are 80% of the way through assessing damage from Sunday's storm. The utility now has a map showing where some of their crews are working.
"That assessment is so key for us to give accurate information, we don't want to give inaccurate information, we want to give more. That's what we're working on. We just have to get more done in the field to make that happen," said Brent Baker with Nashville Electric Service at its press conference today.
A major bottleneck in restoration efforts involves setting hundreds of new power poles. NES says this is the largest their workforce has ever been.
When NewsChannel 5's Jason Lamb asked where NES leadership has succeeded and where they've fallen short, O'Connell highlighted the utility's progress in restoring power to 50% of impacted customers within 72 hours of the largest outage in their history, completing more than 100,000 power restorations with their largest crew ever deployed.
However, the mayor emphasized the need for better information sharing.
"The thing we have been looking for is the same thing all Nashvillians who still lack power have been looking for, which is: help us understand which communities they are in, how much work is actually being done, how difficult the circumstances are on the ground at each outage site, help us with data, help us with visuals, help us with all those things," O'Connell said.
"If there was ever a time to live up to the mantra 'Nashville Strong' it is right now. The coalition in this room is indicative of the wonderful strength of Nashville and the ability to partner to get through difficult times," O'Connell said.
Your voice matters in holding leaders accountable. Here's how you can help:
When elected officials and utility companies make decisions that affect your daily life – like when your power gets restored or how well you're informed during a crisis – someone needs to ask the tough questions.
But we can't do this alone.
What questions do YOU want us to ask? Send us your concerns. What do you want us to ask next? Email me at Jason.Lamb@newschannel5.com
In this article, we used artificial intelligence to help us convert a video news report originally written by Jason Lamb. When using this tool, both Jason and the NewsChannel 5 editorial team checked all the facts in the article to make sure it is fair and accurate before we published it. We care about your trust in us and where you get your news, and using this tool allows us to convert our news coverage into different formats so we can quickly reach you where you like to consume information. It also lets our journalists spend more time looking into your story ideas, listening to you and digging into the stories that matter.
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