Mayor Freddie O'Connell said Friday he is not satisfied with how Nashville Electric Service has handled power restoration following the winter storm, a change in tone after previously describing NES' response successful.
His comments comes as four people have died from suspected storm-related causes, and fifth death is being investigated. Additionally, tens of thousands of NES customers remain without power a week after the storm.
Mary Mabry is one of those still waiting.
“There’s a desperate feeling that starts happening when your hope starts to diminish a little bit each day,” Mabry said.
For several days, O’Connell defended NES’ response, which are directives from NES leaders, as crews worked to restore power across Nashville.
FOX 17 News pressed NES multiple times this week about their preparation and leadership as outages stretched on across Nashville.
“I was wondering how NES prepared to handle these kinds of outages, despite reports that this historic ice storm was coming?” FOX 17 News asked on Tuesday.
Mayor O’Connell emphasized the historic nature of the storm.
“I think let's be clear about what this is," he said. "It is a historic ice storm. And so this is the largest single outage in any history. We do not have these kinds of weather events all the time."
On Thursday, he continued defending NES' response.
“The fact that this is their largest ever number of line crews out with line workers and vegetation support ever, I think that's a sign of their success," O'Connell said.
As outages stretched into another cold stretch, FOX 17 News followed up again Friday, pressing the mayor for a clearer answer.
“Is it not enough that four people have potentially died from this and tens of thousands are still without power for you to make a definitive answer on whether or not this was handled correctly by NES leaders?” FOX 17 News asked.
Later in the briefing, when asked directly whether he was satisfied with NES’ performance and communication, Mayor O’Connell said he expects more.
“Yeah, I mean, I'm going to get to the point of repeating myself here, but no, I am not satisfied, have not been satisfied and continue to expect them to do better,” he said.
He added that the city is pushing the utility to provide clearer and more transparent updates.
“Our communications team remains in close contact with their communications team," O'Connell said. "Our executive leadership, myself personally included, continues to be in close contact with them, pressing them to share more, do more, offer more, show visualization, share data, talk about performance, all of those things."
For Mabry, the prolonged outage has taken a toll.
“It’s been really rough,” she said.
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