The viewer who reached out
I got a text this week from someone named Kim who told me: "My mom lives in a nursing home in Bellevue. They still don't have power. We need help. I'm out of options. Can you help us?"
That nursing home she was referencing was West Meade Place in Bellevue.
I told her I'd ask the questions she had to the mayor at their next press conference, so that's just what I did.
Reaching out to Mayor Freddie O'Connell
At Mayor O'Connell's press conference Wednesday, I asked him:
"I'm looking at a text right now where she's telling me -- 'we need help.' So mayor, what can you say to Kim watching right now for your response?"
"As someone with family in an assisted living facility currently without power, I can assure you Jason and Kim, I absolutely get it," O'Connell responded.
"It's the hardest thing possible to do to know people are in conditions where they're struggling and we can't reach every one of them simultaneously because the conditions are so severe, and that's what Nashville has seen happen."
West Meade Place response:
I talked to staff at West Meade Place who told me the folks staying there are being fed, and confirmed the generators we saw when we were there are supplying heat to at least one section of the building where everyone is now gathered. They also said they commend their staff, many of whom don't have power at their own homes, making their way in braving treacherous conditions to care for the folks at West Meade Place.
NES response:
I asked NES what kind of priority healthcare facilities like West Meade Place get during power restoration. They told me they prioritize areas with the largest outages first and work their way down to single outages. They told me health care facilities and other critical infrastructure are also considered in this process.
I will stay on stories like these and keep asking questions on your behalf. I only found out about this particular situation because of that text message I got, and you can reach out to me too: email me at jason.lamb@newschannel5.com with the questions you want me to ask public officials. We are here to help you hold them accountable and help you get answers.
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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