Nearly a quarter of Nashville households are still in the dark following an historic ice storm over the weekend that caused widespread power outages – but according to some electrical workers, Nashville Electric Service has turned them away when they offered to help.
In Nashville and across much of the south and eastern United States, a massive winter storm has caused chaos after dropping snow and ice over the weekend.
Music City got hit with around a half inch of ice, which caused widespread power outages, forced businesses to shut down, and wreaked havoc on the roads. At one point on Sunday, Nashville Electric Service reported that there were around 240,000 customers without power – nearly half of the 470,000 customers in Davidson County.
The scenes out of Nashville over the weekend were almost post-apocalyptic, with trees falling on power lines, poles breaking, and roads completely impassable due.
As of right now, there are still over 100,000 people without power in the Nashville area, many of whom have been in the dark – and cold – since Saturday when the storm hit. And while NES says they’re doing everything they can to get power restored, some are questioning whether that’s really the case.
According to a report from Fox17, two electrical workers who are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union say that NES turned away offers to help from several union crews from out of state. They believe the cost is why Nashville is refusing the help:
“I’ve had a lot of people reach out trying to come to Nashville to help restore power. They keep getting the same answer- that NES is full and doesn’t need help… I just don’t think they want to pay the union rates.”
One union member reported that there were potentially “thousands” of linemen available after originally staging in North Carolina and not being needed.
NES reports currently having around 700 linemen in the field, which is fewer than nearby Middle Tennessee Electric, which had 200,000 fewer outages than Nashville.
“Why are we 10 minutes down the road with 2,000 outages when we could be 15 minutes to Nashville and help out with more than 200 broken poles? Union or non-union, they could bring in way more people… You think they would put all hands on deck, and flood that city with linemen and just get everything turned on as fast as they can.”
The utility company seemingly admitted to turning down offers for help, telling the Metro Nashville City Council this morning that they’ve been working to bring on more help through already existing contracts and partnerships rather than welcoming new crews:
Yeah, not a great response when you’ve got people who are going on 5 days without power…
NES insists that cost isn’t a concern, but whatever the problem is, it seems clear that they were understaffed and caught looking unprepared for the scale of power outages that we got hit with. And with temperatures expected to remain below freezing for the next week, it’s quickly becoming a safety concern for those who are waiting.
