Some Middle Tennessee Schools Will Remain Closed the Rest of the Week

Line workers in Nashville (Photo by NES)

Students in Middle Tennessee’s largest school districts will remain out of school until at least Friday, and in some cases longer, due to recent winter storms.

Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS), Williamson County Schools, Clarksville-Montgomery County Schools, and others closed on Monday and have since announced plans to remain closed through Thursday due to ongoing transportation disruptions, freezing temperatures, and power outages. Rutherford County Schools announced Wednesday afternoon that it will also remain closed on Friday.

MNPS Spokesperson Sean Braisted told the Tennessee Firefly that the district is waiting for additional information before deciding whether to keep schools closed on Friday as well. Braisted said 30 schools were without power Wednesday morning and they lack the necessary infrastructure to stay warm and operate when the power is out.

“In general, while school buildings have limited backup power for emergency lighting, they do not have generators capable of supporting a full instructional day, including HVAC and other operational needs,” said Braisted.

Nashville Electric Service Faces Criticism for Response

More than 230,000 homes lost power in Davidson County alone.

On Monday, State Senator Jeff Yarbro, D-Nashville, joined other elected leaders who’ve posted messages on social media to thank the Nashville Electric Service (NES) power crews for their ongoing work restoring their electricity

“Much appreciation for the heroic work being done by @NEApower,” wrote Yarbro. “They’ve gotten power back to nearly 60,000 of those who lost it, have surged extra linemen into the city, and have their teams working double-shifts to deal with over 100 broken poles and 175,000 still without power.”

Senator Yarbro’s tweet quickly faced blowback from Nashville residents who still don’t have power and believe the response has been underwhelming. Multiple replies questioned whether more line workers should have been deployed and repeated now-disproven social media rumors that NES turned down union line crews from North Carolina.

“There’s hundreds of thousands of us waking up in a 38 degree bedroom,” tweeted one X user named Mike. “Why did they turn down additional help and yet at the same time told us to prepare for extended outages. Hold their feet to the fire, especially the board of NES. It’s time for accountability.”

Union Leaders Respond

NES has repeatedly denied rumors that it declined assistance, and on Wednesday afternoon, the leader of the union representing Nashville’s line workers also backed the story at a press conference. SEIU (Service Employees International Union) President Jessica Steward read a statement from the leader of the electrical union that represents line workers in the Carolinas, claiming the rumors were started by people who were “without the full picture” of the collaboration underway.

“Reports of IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) line crews being turned away from helping Nashville recover from the ongoing winter storm are unequivocally false. I have been in constant touch with Mayor Freddie O’Connell and executives from Nashville Electric Service since the storm hit, working to coordinate additional manpower to restore power to NES customers. Because of the scale of outages across many states and jurisdictions, this process has taken longer than anyone would have liked,” said Steward, reading the statement from the IBEW leader.

NES Chief Operations and Innovative Officer Brent Baker provided further clarification on the cause of the delay in out-of-state help at the press conference and at a meeting of the NES Board of Directors earlier Thursday.

NES deployed 120 line workers and 40 contracted workers on Sunday to begin restoring power to the more than 230,000 customers who lost it. The number of line workers grew to 300 on Monday morning and 500 later that day. On Tuesday, more than 740 line workers were in the field, and on Wednesday, more than 900 were restoring power to the remaining 109,000 customers still without power.

By comparison, Middle Tennessee Electric, which serves Williamson, Rutherford, Cannon, and Wilson Counties, posted on social media Monday that the arrival of outside line crews had roughly tripled its field crews. By the end of Tuesday, Middle Tennessee Electric reported more than 600 linemen working to restore 2,300 outages.

Baker says NES began working with its utility partners ahead of the storm to acquire additional line workers, but had to wait to receive them.

“As the storm rolled through and others around our region knew that they were not going to need the resources, they began sending those resources over at our request,” said Baker. “Every utility was holding onto crews in anticipation of the storm, and as soon as damage was known, from their system, they began to release crews to us.”

Safety Concerns

Further complicating matters, Baker notes that not all outside crews will be familiar with Nashville's systems. He says that, for safety reasons, most out-of-state crews working in Nashville must have an NES crew member with them as they’re restoring power.

As of Thursday, crews from seven states were working to restore power in Nashville, and Baker says more will be added in the coming days.

“Bringing on outside contractors who have never worked on our system requires some vetting to ensure that there is safety,” said Baker. “That was beginning early on.”

Baker said he expects those extra crews will help ensure most of the remaining homes have power restored by this weekend, but some homes could still be without power next week.