NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Nashville Electric Service officials said it's preparing for potential power outages with ice on the forecast.
A Storm 5 Alert is in effect Thursday afternoon through Friday afternoon due to the threat of flooding and ice in the region.
Sylvia Smith, vice president of customer services for Nashville Electric, said it’s important to stay weather alert because people could see power outages with these conditions. Smith said given the fact that it’s been raining steadily for the last two days the icy mixture could make it easier for trees to topple over.
As ice builds up on trees and adds weight to branches they can fall on power lines and lead to outages. Downed lines are extremely dangerous and that’s why Nashville Electric has this warning.
“I do want to remind customers that if they do have or see a line low or if it has fallen just assume that it's live and stay away from it, report that line being down to 911 and just keep that as a safety precaution do not go near that power line,” Smith said.
Smith says the northern region above Interstate 40 is going to be one of their biggest concerns.
In case ice accumulation takes down power lines, Nashville Electric officials said crews will be on standby all night.
“As far as any type of storm we are going to monitor it. It’s very hard to detect how much problems we’re going to experience. Our last storm we had was from the tornadoes and that was quite an extensive outage. We certainly hope we don’t have that magnitude of damage for this one,” Smith said.
Nashville Electric is encouraging everyone to get prepared which means having essential items ready to go, such as blankets, flashlights batteries, non-perishable food, and water just in case your power goes out.
NES recommends reporting outages at 615-234-0000.
