NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Thousands are without power after severe storms ripped through the Middle Tennessee area over the weekend.
At the storm’s peak, it knocked out power to about 95,000 customers and broke nearly 120 power poles, which take longer to repair and replace. On Sunday morning, 11,000 remain without power.
"Today, engineering crews and bucket crews are focusing on the most heavily damaged areas with the largest number of outages," NES said in a media statement. "NES expects to restore power to all major infrastructure circuits by tomorrow, which will bring power back to a majority of customers. Then, crews will begin work on the remaining customers who have independent, individual outages. The timeline for those final outages could be 5 to 7 days."
As of 9 p.m., about 28,000 customers are without power in Nashville, according to Nashville Electric Service.
"NES crews are responding to wide-spread power outages across the service area," NES said in a media statement. "The line of severe storms knocked out power to about 87,000 customers, and crews are working as quickly as possible to safely restore power."
According to Sylvia Smith, the vice president of customer services for NES, they lost about 49 distribution circuits or other infrastructure. These primary circuits have hundreds if not thousands of customers they supply power to. She said at its peak approximately 95,000 customers were without power.
Around 4 p.m., that number is down to only 28 primary infrastructures — that’s where they’ve been able to get so many customers back on in a short amount of time.
"NES expects to restore power to all major infrastructure units by Monday, which will bring power back to a majority of customers. Then, crews will begin work on the remaining customers who have independent, individual outages. The timeline for those final outages could be 5-7 days," NES said in a media statement.
On Saturday, NES announced they launched a new website to help victims from the storm.
Just over 200 customers are still without power from Middle Tennessee Electric. In Wilson County, the majority of the outages were in the Watertown and Lakeview areas.
Dickson Electric Service also reported nearly half its homes were without power. As of 10:30 a.m., the service had been restored to 11,000 customers. DES is still working to restore power to 5,800 customers.
