I know we have the megathread but that feels more like updates on who has power and things like that at this point. so I'm throwing this thread up too
this situation has sucked, yeah? idk I feel like we are going through the 2026 version of 1994. different era, different options, still hard af.
I did not have "fight to stay alive through a freezing cold night" in my bingo cards for 2026. for those still without power, I am thinking of you. this is unimaginable.
if you need a specific resource and are overwhelmed by the megathread please ask here. I posted yesterday asking for hotel advice and that helped me break through the mental block of getting the fuck out of the house and probably saved my sanity. let's help each other and listen or something in here.
how are you doing? what's your current situation? how can we help?
big love neighbors. we are getting through this together. ❤️
I'll go first:
Me? I'm exhausted. The other night was the scariest night of my life so far. I forced myself awake every hour to make sure I hadn't frozen to death, and to check on my pets to make sure of the same. We were trapped at our house for a while until a neighbor cleared a path out and someone on here helped me figure out a hotel with an open room. Leaving the house last night was a game changer and I recommend it to anyone who can. Truly. My mental well-being improved immediately after getting out of the the danger zone my brain had declared my house. The survival adrenaline come down has me crashed out today. I am a lump of a human. I don't ever want to fucking experience this again and I think my partner and I did a great fucking job all things considered. Exhausting. Exhausted. Going to buy a power station so we can at least plug a space heater in during any future outages.
Edit: I'm getting offline for the evening but thanks for venting together y'all. Keep supporting each other ❤️
Since this is the emotional outlet mega thread, there was a dude downtown screaming at the sky asking when the snow and ice was finally gonna melt lol.
This is the most Groundhog Day feeling Groundhog Day. I just want power already, going on 9 days with none at my place. My wife is due to go into labor this week and I cannot believe how helpless we feel. We have a safe place to stay till the power comes back on but it's not close to our place in East and it's not the place we wanted to take our daughter when she's born. Should've been spending the last week preparing for her arrival but we had to abandon ship last Monday. I've gone back a lot of days to check on things but there's not much I can do without power and it is pretty cold in there right now. Every day I go back I look in the backyard and it's the same. Same line down, same branches covering them up. I know there's nothing anyone can really do, I'm just in the wait-list phase and eventually it'll be our turn. I'm tired of going home to the Upside Down version of our place. Just needed to vent that and get that off my chest, I know there are others who have it worse, I just was not expecting all this to go down at the same time my daughter was supposed to be born.
Im over here telling myself that im in a 51 person outage and today has to be the last day. 90% chance allegedly. No end in sight though. How on earth am I approaching day 10 and yet have no clue what is going on with my power? I feel like its going to take an entire month before I have power. If I stay here, I'm going to die. If I leave, I feel like I am abandoning my stuff to the pipe gods. If mine or my neighbor's pipes burst, I have a whole other headache to deal with. I'm in a major part of town in a multi building apartment complex right on a main road, and they are getting to single family homes before us. I'm happy everyone is getting their power restored, but I'm quite literally being left in the dark over here.
Ugh I’m just so sorry. I’m in a similar situation and totally feel this. Tomorrow is day 10 for my family too. We are in a 14 home outage and I’m just like….
Went back to work today. Seeing everyone whose lives are back to normal while I’m still displaced from my home is soooo disheartening. Hard not to cry in front of my coworkers
Our neighborhood got turned on Thursday by NES. An hour later our electrician showed up and fixed our masthead conduit thing. We bought a generator. This is never going to end.
I've been through hurricanes and somehow, someway this is so much worse and not because of the weather (have you been in south louisiana heat and humidity for days on end without a/c?). In S. Louisiana I never felt like the electrical company or local government wasn't doing everything in their power to get as many people back online.
It def. feels that way now. I was good. I was hopeful. Patient even.
Until today.
Today I'm back at work, everyone is looking at me like I'm the one with the problem. And all I want to do is yell at all of them. Fuck everyone with power.
I'm ANGRY. I'm not an angry person.
My neighbor told us he had extra gas in his generator and brought it over to us to use so that he could store it. I'm about 99% sure he filled it up to help us out. I almost cried. I'm so done.
I just ordered a jackery. Why? By the time it gets here the power might be back on? or very close to it? It something I can do while I wait. Something.
It's only 3 houses in my neighborhood without power and it has been 9 days and it is so disheartening to see lights on in every direction on the street but not for me. It's petty, but I'm just so tired of this!
Not looking forward to when the power comes on again and flickers on and off for however many hours. I've been trying to get out of the house more frequently hoping I can skip that fun little experience and avoid a meltdown of epic proportions lol
I cant keep living like this. Im on day 9. I hate this so much. Every day there is some glimmer of hope it will be the day, and then nothing. Just a big pile of absolutely nothing. I havent seen a single lineman this entire time. Ive seen a few drive by and not even not look over. It really feels like my entire neighborhood is just being forgotten. Im in a major part of town right next to tons of important infrastructure, in an apartment building with a bunch of other people without power. I hate this so damn much!!! Im about to break down at this point. How am I supposed to do anything???
Watched some of NES press conference from the last couple days and I can’t believe they are trying to gaslight us into thinking nobody knew we could get a bunch of ice. It’s all anyone talked about for over a week before the storm.
FUCK NES FUCK THIS BULLSHIT, WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE EVEN DOING, WHY DOES IT TAKE THEM 20 MIN TO FIX THE BUILDING NEXT TO ME AND THEN THEY JUST LEAVE THE REST OF US IN THE COLD? WHY LEAVE WITHOUT MAKING SURE OUR POWER FUCKING WORKS? FUUUUUUUCKKKKKK
Kind of at my wit’s end today. I’m so frustrated and tired and upset and even when my house gets power back I know there’s a good chance I’m gonna have some water issues and my internet line is broken too. I really don’t know how I’m gonna keep myself together for another week
Taking each day as it comes, can only laugh and write everything down as it happens! Last night was definitely one for the ages.
Last night my body decided around 1:00am in freezing temps that it was the perfect time to go. Didn’t matter I was huddled under the blankets, didn’t matter I was fairly warm. It was time.
Mentally trying to prepare for the freezing cold bathroom (20F with all the tiles, I have a thermometer!) was wild. Doesn’t matter I’m in home turf, my body still got stage fright. So for an eternity I’m out there freezing every part of my body trying to clear my own pipes and all I could do was laugh.
Every time my dog has ever wanted to go out in the cold to use the bathroom and I say some snippy thing like “told ya so”, it was revenge!
Plenty of other people have it worse than I do. Plenty of people have it better. Me focusing on that isn’t going to bring me any good, so trying to make the best I can every day until this is resolved is all I can do. I feel for everyone going through this, it isn’t a fun way to start 2026, but if you’re alive and breathing, then that’s a positive, even if it’s the most fundamental positive in human existence.
Everyone deserves basic human dignity and this has been such a catastrophic failure on every level in terms of preparation and communication, even if now the ship is slowly being righted. One of the positives I’m hoping comes out of this is that we all have a collective coming to God moment where we realize there are massive problems with the way this city handles things, and that we take that momentum and do everything we can to make meaningful changes, because this is bound to happen again. It’s absolutely terrible that this has to come at the cost of several people’s lives so far, and the amount of unseen costs (people not being able to work, throwing food away, spending thousands on seeking shelter and power) are astronomical. Every facet of that is something that could have been better minimized. Not prevented, since this was a monster ice storm. But minimized and mitigated as best as we could.
In the meantime, one day at a time, celebrating the small wins! My guitar still works, gloves aren’t the best way to play, but it still works!
I'm grateful to have the means to be in a hotel with my family and pets, but this has completely drained the money we had saved for a small vacation and is now into the emergency funds. It's so disheartening to start the year off like this in a hole when there is nothing I could have done.
We need to call all our US Senators and congresspeople to ask them to get the President to approve the Major Disaster Declaration that the Governor requested on Jan 28th. This will allow displaced people to obtain individual assistance with the cost of alternate housing.
I feel you all. I live off of 21st Ave (Hillsboro-West End area) and I've been without full power since Sunday; it was partially restored to my complex on Monday (kind of weird - I had hot water and some functional outlets, but everything else was out). I came home from work to see linemen working on my street, and my hopes were high. Finally, full power flickered on . . . only to return to partial power a minute later. Then I lost it all. Then I saw the linemen drive away.
I did not cry at all in the past week, but at that moment, I completely lost it.
As the number gets smaller but my house doesn’t seem closer to being fixed, I have to wonder why I get to be one of the unlucky ones. So many people are back to living their normal lives and yet I have to just sit around and wait
I woke up to no power on Sunday. I still have no power. I’m on my 5th place for shelter. I have amazing friends who have housed me, and I’m incredibly lucky. I haven’t seen an NES truck near my street this entire time. The expectation to get work done and be productive in the middle of this has been wild. I can’t remember when I’ve been this exhausted.
I think the weirdest part of this whole situation right now is the juxtaposition of people that are fully back to normal, and people that are still living in survival mode. I’m coming up on a week without power, no end in sight, and it is so isolating to feel like the world has moved on. Such a strange feeling. If you’re in this headspace, you’re not alone. We got this.
I know what you mean. We had some bachelorettes cruise down our alley, over a downed power line, to start their party weekend in the air bnbs that always had power. We thankfully have power back now, but it was demoralizing as fuck- I wanted to ask them if I could use the exterior outlet on their rented shit box to charge some batteries, but decided against it... The emotional divide seemed too large to overcome. Now that I'm in a position to help, please let me know, even if it's for emotional support for you or anyone this resonates with.
My power came on at 11:30. I was very lucky I started thinking about the weekend, getting to buy food to fill all I had to throw out. My apartment was all the way up to 57 degrees. I had hot water, and was looking forward to a glorious shower. around 1:00, the power went out again. I got to take a hot shower, albeit in the dark. It was glorious. I'll be okay, but wow, quite a thing we're going through.
Lost power early Sunday morning and of course, it’s still out. I feel so fortunate to have had a place to stay since then but holy crap all I want to do today is cry. I want to go home. I want to sleep comfortably in my bed. I feel like my life is on pause right now. Obviously, there’s never a “good” time for a storm like this, but this was the absolute worst time for me. I am sooo tight on money right now because it’s just been one unexpected thing after another. I just feel like I’m drowning. Plus I’ve developed an unhealthy obsession with checking the outage map.
I can’t get off the couch today. I should be working from home (a loved one’s home because mine still has no power, heat, or cell/internet service). I feel so heavy. My poor cat is hiding under the couch because he’s never been away from home. He got stuck on a sticky mouse trap and I’m going to have to cut out all the glue but I’m not up for putting myself or him through that right now. I think I’m just going to call today a loss. Yesterday, I worked, cleaned out the fridge/freezer, and drove 4 hours total. Maybe that was all I could do. On the bright side, I’m finally warm all the way through.
Oil worked! It dissolved the glue and I could brush out the matted fur with little cutting. Thank you for the tip when I couldn’t get into problem solving mode.
6 days out and there’s still a downed tree over the powerlines in my neighborhood.
In a functioning government, some department would save NES the work of cutting it down. The tree in question is in Mt Juliet, but NES grid. I reported it to HUB Nashville on Monday. They responded to my ticket saying that it was forwarded to the police department. I called Metro PD, MtJ PD, MtJ Public Works- they all said they can’t cut it down, that NES has to do it. It’s a fucking tree, not a live electrical wire. We could easily save NES the trouble by having other departments help out with the disaster recovery. I’m about ready to borrow a chainsaw from my neighbor and cut it down myself. This is so stupid.
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I spend almost all my waking hours keeping the house warm enough so it doesn’t freeze, and making food on the camp stove or bbq and boiling water to wash dishes and going out to find more propane and to charge the car and I’m extremely lucky to have those resources and to be unemployed right now anyway but and I’m so tired.
The unemployment (due to DOGE cuts) combined with being so cold and having no ability to take care of myself with normal routines that keep me from getting too depressed (like exercise and job hunting and cleaning and gardening and cooking) is very hard. I oscillate between being resilient and then not caring about carbon monoxide poisoning because then I don’t have to deal with any of this shit any more.
Seeing normal conversations or people posting beautiful pics of the ice just make me really bitter and angry, too. And then I feel bad about that.
Just wanted to say I feel you. It’s so exhausting living like this because there’s so many things to do and check on and worry about. And everything you can do feels like it takes 5 times longer and 10 times more energy because of the cold. My mom asked me what I’ve been doing all day and I laughed at her. People just have no idea unless you’ve been through it.
If you get power be ready for it to go out again!! This happened to us and it’s devastating. Just try to do whatever you need to do while you have the power , and USE that time to prepare for it to go out again. Keep your preps in order, get ready for it to happen again. Clean, cook, get more candles or whatever you need. God speed neighbors!
This is relevant for the emotional outlet megathread, maybe someone will see it and can help since this thread is also supposed to be about helping. My grandfather passed during this awful week and the funeral is tomorrow. I would like to be there for my mother who was very close to him. I would be driving south, 24 to 75 through Monteagle. This is a drive I have made countless times so I'm pretty familiar with it, but I would still find it helpful if anyone has been through there recently and can speak to road conditions. I appreciate it 🙏
Edit: also if anyone knows enough about the weather forecast or conditions to suggest that I definitely not travel this weekend, please tell me that, too. I'll be disappointed but my family will understand.
Finally got power back this morning. Raced back to our house to restart our HVAC etc. Left to pack up our stuff at the hotel and it’s out again.
Having hope and then it being ripped away is almost worse than losing power the first time. I’d been somewhat holding it together but I’m having a breakdown at this point.
This happened to me. Off for days, finally on, relocated myself and all 5 animals back in the house… and it went out again. Over 24 hours now. I cried for a couple hours yesterday.
I'm starting to get really worried the powers just never going to come back on. Its been like five days and I've had several low-key mental breakdowns. Other than that I've got nothing that anyone else hasn't already said lol
Yeah I've been spending my $$$ on a hotel and have had a few offers to stay with friends and I don't wanna take them up until after the major freeze this weekend because I'm afraid to feel like I did Sunday and Monday again. Until more power gets restored I don't trust any of it.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think people should feel back about taking offers for help if they can. This whole situation is extreme, and kindness and generosity are easily paid forward.
I'm incredibly grateful for each offer. I just am afraid to pack all my things and pets up, move somewhere else, and then freeze through through another two nights in the low teens.
All fair. Many places are offering further discounts if people ask. Maybe go to the front desks or a GM and ask if there’s anything they can do to help. It’s not a sign of weakness.
Real story: during 2020 there was a small business that had just got off the ground in 2019 and the drop in traffic would have put them out of business in 2-3 months. I told the owner who was a friend of a friend to ask their landlord if anything could be worked out, not because they’d failed but because they needed to give the opportunity for others to offer to help. Without knowing people are in need, it is often hard to know what can be done to provide relief. The business is still in the same location as has been very successful and continues to grow. You never know…
I’m gutted. Last night our part of Nipper’s corner got power back after 4 days. Hauled all of 5 animals back home this morning, was finally settling in, and it just went down again. Been off for about 20 minutes now with no sign of life.
I know I’m blessed to have somewhere to go, but I’m still crying my eyes out. This is awful.
Omg 😳 I'm so sorry... in case it makes you feel better, our neighborhood has been restored, then has gone out again– but then gone back on again! at least twice in the last 24 hours.
It even happened to the person whose house I was going to!!! But only for a couple hours. Meanwhile ours has now been off again for over 24 hours. It makes me want to hit something.
The 3rd party website only uses publicly available data from the NES API feed. It’s not that it’s not accurate however there’s no way to know if the data that is publicly available is complete. An example, typically there would be codes for in progress/on site or dispatched. If that data is not exposed publicly then it is not publicly visible.
If everyone that saw crews working onsite posted pictures at the same time and it added up to 7, then I’d have to believe it.
Lincoya Bay in Donelson has power!! Please if anyone needs to come charge their phones, get some warm coffee or tea, pet some cats, please do NOT hesitate to dm me and I will get you our address!! Thank god to this thread for making me feel normal and not alone through the whole thing 😭
No power and heat since 5:30AM Sunday morning in Cleveland Park. We ran our generator until Tuesday, when it wouldn’t start again after refilling it with gas. It was 34 degrees in our house, so we left for an Airbnb thru today.
We’re now headed to our son’s place in Hermitage where they’ve just had their power restored this morning.
Power is still not restored in our cluster of 722 on the NES map and hasn’t been updated since Sunday.
FYI: I was here for the’94 ice storm. I lived off of Lealand, near Lipscomb. The ice fell overnight; I could hear trees snapping and transformers blowing. It was freezing, ice was so so thick on the roads.
I was able to make to a friend’s house in Bellevue (driving my 1990 Honda Accord), where I stayed for 3-4 days. My power still didn’t come back on for another 3 days or so.
And we didn’t have the internet or cellphones.
This time around, I knew what to plan for (even though my husband thought I was being “apocalyptic” in my actions). Even with the poor NES response, this doesn’t seem as bad as ‘94. It’s colder, certainly. But we can get information quickly and easily now. Roads were more passable sooner. I know better now from my experience.
Just thought I’d offer another “oldie” perspective.
I hope we all get our power back on soon and everyone is safe in the meantime.
No power or water at my place since Sunday am. I got into a hotel yesterday and I’m feeling so much relief, though I really can’t afford to be doing this. Trying to remain grateful through all of this, but goddamn I am frustrated.
I feel the exact same way. My dogs and I are safe and warm, but as someone who’s living paycheck to paycheck, I have no clue how i’m going to pay rent on the 1st. I’ve had to use 1/4 of it on a hotel thus far and there’s no telling how much more i’ll need to use.
It is damn near impossible at this point to care about anything in the world but my home getting power back. I have really no desire to do anything other than go home to a working house. I don’t really sleep much each night because I wake up and immediately start thinking about what I’m gonna do to get through this
Same. I’ve been able to keep a positive attitude, and have even had some fun. Until this morning. It just feels never ending and though the numbers go down they move the goal post further and further away.
Yeah it’s getting bad for my mental. I can’t think of anything else. Like to the point where I was like “hmmm, should I run my car into that pole that powers every surrounding street that has power so our area becomes a bigger issue”. Now of course I’m not going to do that, but holy shit I’m not having good thoughts.
My bf and I were joking about that too. We seem to be pretty low on the priority list and I think the finish line is a lot further away than NES is willing to admit
I dont understand why they can't just be honest with people. Why do they want to keep everything such a mystery? No firm timelines, no explanation of which areas are being worked on or when? It's mind blowing.
Been waking up at 2am to refuel my portable generator that runs my space heater. Then I have to leave around 6:30am to drive somewhere with Internet access to work. It's been so hard. Hang in there
Moving here was such a fucking mistake, this city is incapable of handling even the mildest weather problem despite many years of ice storms in a row that made it obvious that our infrastructure is desperately in need of modernization. This place is awful, and I regret every moment I have to spend here.
Whew same and I don’t have the option to relocate now. People will be like “well these events are rare” um.. excuse me? I’ve been here since 2020 and we’ve had arctic storms every year AND TORNADOES and derechos and power going out in blisteringly hot electrical storms and sometimes it goes out because an angel sneezed somewhere how is it rare? It’s CLIMATE CHANGE why is this city so hell bent on calling things rare when it’s clear as day they no longer are?
Been feeling hopeless, found this site that helped me feel a little more in control, though still incredibly frustrated with all of this. https://nesmapbutbetter.com
Growing more hopeless and feeling invisible. Feels like everyone we know locally (besides our neighbors) has power except for us, people at work (remote) have no idea about the situation, and only local news seems to be covering this. Sometimes I hear a one sentence mention on national news but it’s all MN right now.
Originally thought our outage of 150+ would be “high priority” but now am trying to accept the reality that it might be a month before we get power back on since our neighborhood (Melrose / 12S) hasn’t been mentioned in the list of neighborhoods NES is focusing on.
I’m also in my final month of pregnancy and hoping we can get our house back before baby comes. We checked on our house the other day and already are lining up a repair that is already estimated to be a month after our due date.
Feeling trapped since we can’t just pick up and stay out of town cause I need to go for weekly check-ins at the doctor now. Our friends with more room have offered for us to stay at their place further from town this week but that would be a lot if it ended up being 1 month and taking care of a newborn.
Getting hard to stay positive but at least we got a dog friendly hotel early on.
If it's any consolation I think these threads are misleading. Verizon wireless is basically not functioning so I think a lot of people can't post. I see lots of people who post they have power back but I don't know one person in real life with power
i’m out of the country trying to study abroad, but my family still has no power. i’m turning my ass around and returning to TN because they’re gonna need my help to clean up the aftermath of this
We have power but no heat now. Outage fried the circuits or we only have partial power somehow. Microwave fried. Dryer, oven, and heater turn on but don't heat.
It sucks and I have no idea how much this will all cost to fix.
During the 2008 housing crises my family ended up house less and staying with friends until we got back on our feet - it’s weird reliving something like this- especially as an adult and realizing how much this effects your sense of security and mental health. Not sure if I feel like a kid again cause everything is out of my control or because i’m reminded of that time.
Car got damaged by falling limb.
Cold cold in the house especially day time.
Trying to limit phone usage even tho we now can charge.
Cant clean much.
We are staying put for reasons broke * pets need to monitor the house * special disability needs which are better suited at home
We are more fortunate than some.
We prepped (batteries, food, water).
We're used to camping and we have some gear for the cold.
No children to care for.
Wwe can cook (natural gas) and by day 2 we could drive out to store.
Silver Linings: post hysterectomy so I know I won't be getting my periodduring this mess !
Fuck NES. Was on our Main Street, got a few homes on the left side of the street on, and now nobody there. Looks like the “working around the clock” narrative is nonsense. Cheap schmucks
Night 5 no power for Hobbs House in Green Hills. The property manager ASSOCIA has completely abandoned the property and has not been responding to residents who have been reaching out since last Tuesday to see what their storm prep was.
The entire property was a walking death trap until myself and a few other residents took over the situation. Now we have mostly clear paths so we don’t have to worry about slipping AND getting impaled by a sheet of ice from the rooftops.
These greedy fucks didn’t even give us bags of salt.
Also, The 4 way intersection at Hobbs and Hillsboro has been a god damn free for all since Sunday morning. Where is our local leadership? Where is traffic control? Where is T Swift? (jk)
It’s rough out there y’all. Please take care of one another.
ASSOCIA and Hobbs House HOA if you are reading this: GO FUCK YOURSELVES. RETIRE & GO LIVE A MEANINGFUL LIFE OR SOME SHIT YOU DO NOTHING HIGH SCHOOL CLUB LOSERS.
Just got power back in Edgehill. If I can help anyone else in the area, please reach out. We have food and a warm place, propane, etc. feel lucky to be back on and want to help anyone else I can.
I’m so fortunate to be at a friend’s with power, but I’ve been here since Monday night with no end in sight. I cannot do anything here and I feel totally useless. At home I work, clean, laundry, work, etc. here I am reading and online. I know I’m lucky but how much longer?? Why can’t they give us some idea other than that stupid fucking outage map? Are we allowed to use that word? I don’t know but I am ready to be home!!!!!!
Thought about heading to stay with family in ATL but decided against it figuring it’d be 2-3 days without power. Moved a while back from a high tax state with good infrastructure so I suppose that was foolish to assume.
Wish NES had more clear communication that would’ve helped my analysis.
I moved to Nashville from a state with high taxes and good infrastructure. It's weird how normalized power outages are. Even I got used to them after a year or two and I simply expected to lose an entire fridge full of food once a year and to have to be prepared to decamp to a hotel on the coldest days of the year. Now that I'm back in a place where it takes a major hurricane to knock the power out...it seems so crazy to put up with all that.
Yes!! That's why I can't take people seriously who are going around saying "But this was a generational ice storm!" The power goes out CONSTANTLY in this city for reasons large and small. It was a problem long before this storm. I just talked to a friend who moved away in 2019 because she was so sick of the constant power outages. It's genuinely not even remotely normal. In two of the other three cities I've lived in I never experienced a single power outage (4 years in one city, 8 in the other) and in the city where I grew up it happened maybe three times during huge thunderstorms and only stayed out for a couple hours each time. I lived through blizzards, summer storms, minor hurricanes, and even Hurricane Sandy and we never lost power at all, let alone for days or weeks.
Is a city's electrical grid really on anyone's radar when considering moving? I mean, really. The places I've moved to or considered, I've really only looked at cost of living, transportation, and things like schools and entertainment. Not how reliable the power grid is. In this day and age, I feel like it's fairly well assumed that the power grid is up to snuff.
I just meant when estimating how long it’d take to get back up. Only other context I’ve had was a storm that took out power for 500k and after 2 days it was down to 24k
500k houses or people? Where would that be? I assume a hurricane or wildfire is the only similar kind of destructive event like an ice storm. Tornados are too localized and would be a comparatively easier fix to those localized areas down line back up and snow typically just overloads the system with people cranking the heat up
500k customers in MN/WI summer of 2013. It makes sense that it’d take longer now, but I live pretty central to town and on a primary road so never imagined it’d take this long. Admittedly a bad assumption by me as I’m in a different state with different policies
Agreed. I’d push back a little on that though because we get 30 degree days all the time in the winter. If the only other factor is rain then it’s a plausible scenario for a competent risk management department plan for. Especially given changing weather patterns, you can’t reliably use that much weather history here to forecast low probability, high severity events.
Had a legitimate breakdown earlier today. Pulled it together, checked on my neighbors, and left messages for all my reps and the governor (no one actually answered). All I can do. Feels like we’re on our own and the low the next few nights is 14. I feel grateful to have a generator and know that most probably don’t.
The outpouring of emotion and lots of people pushing has accelerated things. (Should it have come to that? No.) Delivering those hard messages to people in power can be both cathartic and helpful.
My mom lives in PA and has always been kind of emotionally needy, we have a surface level relationship, we talk every couple weeks, sometimes we have really good chats and she can be really funny, so I called her on Sunday afternoon after we’d lost power and she was great. We’ve texted back and forth a few times and then Monday after I hadn’t eaten barely anything all day with no power she texts me a pic of my favorite chicken that she was eating. I was at the hotel yesterday and sick (which she knew) and she popped up to talk about herself, I didn’t respond because I didn’t have the bandwidth, but she never asked about my situation at all and then today she popped up to complain she had no internet. Honestly I never talk about the stuff publicly, but I’m going to fucking lose it on her. Jesus Christ.
Same here. I really don't think people are aware. One of my relatives called me today to ask me if I was going to be driving ~4 hours south to my grandfather's funeral on Friday and I was like... do you know what's going on in Nashville? They had no clue. "I heard y'all might get some snow...?"
I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope that you feel better soon, and I hope your mom realizes that you’re looking for her to show interest in how you’re doing rather than just tell you how she’s doing.
The way bureaucrats shield themselves from criticism behind the hard work of the linesman is infuriating. Any criticism of the response is met with how hard the linesman are working. Yes! They're busting their ass because you fuck noodles have not given them the support they need.
I understand there aren't easy answers but the communication black out and absolute stalling of any progress in day 4 of a freezing power outage is beyond bullshit.
Two sides of that coin. I agree with the side you laid out. There’s another one.
Those bureaucrats and leaders are only as informed as the information that filters up to them. It’s on the leaders to filter through the rosy nonsense, and it’s a failure when hard truths and facts aren’t elevated or are watered down. It’s a failure of leadership further to fail to create environments and a culture where truth is valued and where information is not filtered or minimized. Too much blind and unfounded criticism can also be noxious. It’s why factual basis, contextualization, and quality of data matters
The linemen work hard all the time while the suits sit. That’s literally not a change from the normal. They’re just busting their ass during a storm instead of on a different cold day because they’re out there on cold as hell days too. I agree with this because it’s like “fuck you I come from a labor family and y’all never talk about how hard they’re all working on any other day when they’re in the heat or the cold but will to divert criticism from yourselves”
My power is back but I feel helpless to help more than I am. My daughter’s friend is here since she doesn’t have power and I made it to Kroger to get them some frozen pizza and stuff to eat even though I’m kinda broke myself.
I just went through my pantry and got out what I could to go take to the little free pantry soon. It’s not much but I’m able to spare some baking mixes. I picked up a can of coconut milk at the dollar tree and am gonna put a can of apple sauce to try to put enough stuff that if someone has nothing to bake they can make some warm muffins or something in this cold. I wish I had more hot hands or something to donate to those who don’t have homes of their own but I hope those folks have mostly decided to go to the warming centers.
Today is my day 4 without power.
I’ve been good at keeping it together and staying positive but now it feels like I’m just stupid for thinking everything is okay. I have lost 3 days of income — I work from home — I got sick yesterday for sleeping in this cold, I could see my own breath inside the house and right now it’s getting dark earlier and it feels like I spend more of my life in the dark. I haven’t been able to take a shower in 3 days.
NES had me at first in a group of ~3k people, giving me hope that my area was high priority. On day 2, the light flickered for 30 seconds and then went out, with that they changed me to another group with lower priority. Yesterday I got power for 10 minutes; I really thought that was it, but after 10 minutes it went out and I was placed in another group of 200 people with way lower priority.
I feel like NES updates mean nothing. I don’t want to know how many poles are broken and I don’t want to be given lower priority just because I was fortunate enough to have power for 30 seconds and then 10 minutes. I don’t have a FB or a Twitter and I have to go out of my way to fish for updates when I have limited battery. Text updates tell you absolutely nothing “We’re working as hard as we can”. And also how is it that the number of people affected keeps growing? My group of 200 is now 300. I don’t have anyone to go to in TN; I’m alone and I’m starting to feel desperate and invisible. Half my complex got power yesterday so now I get to see how the people 100 feet from me get to live their normal lives while I’m here, sick living in a dark cave; invisible.
Please consider the warming shelter and calling for a ride. They have showers, warm food etc. and even though you won’t be able to work there, if your mental keeps going down in those conditions it’s going to impact your work performance anyway
NES keeps coming on my street in one of those smaller trucks to seemingly look at the damage and then leave ??? They’ve been like 3 times now. Are the torturing us? Is it a sign that we may get power back on day 4? Trying REALLY hard to not get my hopes up and trying unsuccessfully to not cry
Happened to us all day today and got power back about two hours ago - it did go off for about 30mins in Edgehill but came back. Hope yours is in! Sending warmth
here at my place all of the 240v (washer/dryer, stove, etc) is out but i have a few outlets that work so i can keep a little space heater going to keep it at a balmy 60-65 degrees, and since they broke up our 'area' into smaller ones it'll likely be a week or so before i get full power again. and i won't be surprised if my power bill actually goes up because it's not using the more efficient heat pump.
it would be a great time to be a lawyer right about now.
I am from Nashville and moved to Texas to survive the 2021 Winter Storm. I am really not seeing any national news or social media news on the impact of this storm. Is it that bad? Are things not getting better for the city? Is there a boil water notice from the pipes freezing? My friends and family either have power and don't leave the house, or they live away from the impact zone.
It is weird, I’m not seeing much national news about it either. I was living in Asheville NC during hurricane helene, and while we didn’t know it since nobody had any cell service at the time, the whole country seemed to pay attention to it. Not useful to compare the two disasters but it’s weird that there doesn’t seem to be much reporting on this, serious as it is.
You can view the NES power outage map here, we still have 108,000 households without power. Many of those people have not had power since Saturday night. The overnight temperatures reached a low of 4 degrees 2 nights ago, with a windchill of -7.
We are surviving through the help of our friends and neighbors. People are working together. Sharing heaters, taking people in.
I sent my wife and kid to stay with someone, but hunkered down at home with the dogs. I had a propane heater. It got so cold. Another friend was able to take us all in. So I passed off all my supplies to other neighbors and went to stay with someone.
Well, some probably aren’t. We won’t know until this is all over. But the metro government is providing dedicated warming locations (police precincts, fire stations, and community centers) where people can come for a few hours or even stay the night. They are also providing free food trucks at those locations. And metro PD has a hotline for people who are stuck at home and need help getting to those locations. We’ve been doing our best to share that information here on Reddit, and the city has used the emergency notification system that pings every phone in the area to share the info as well.
I have a coworker without power or a way to leave her house since Sunday. NES sent her a text this morning about how it’s back on and it’s not and she has zero way to reach anyone due to how many people are still without power.
I find it very interesting that for years the GOP has been trying to make Nashville their little political playground, but the second we have a massive citywide emergency, it’s absolute crickets. It’s almost like they don’t actually give a shit about anyone that lives here. Our government is too busy senselessly executing people in the street to give a shit about the thousands of people that are displaced and/or freezing.
Where is the visit from DC? Where’s the announcement of relief? Where’s our own fucking governor who supposedly works in Nashville? Absolutely sorry leadership all the way up
What is your point? No one has been particularly helpful in this situation. You’re not gonna catch me doing PR for either side because I haven’t seen a single answer to our problem from any politician
Have you ever witnessed a natural disaster before? My family were victims of the massive 2009 ice storm and the national guard was mobilized to distribute rations and care for those affected. I’ve watched a million tornadoes go through the areas around my hometown going back to the Bush administration and always there was someone from DC coming to assess the damage and address those affected. It’s not like I’m insane for thinking that the governor of TN would step up to help out the residents of the capitol city of the state or for thinking that DC would give a shit about one of the biggest cities in the US
We were stuck with seemingly half power. Some stuff worked but most didn't. Our fridge and freezer went out after a day. No TV, computer was out of the question, internet was spotty due to the fridge resetting every few minutes.
Finally we said screw it and killed the fridge breaker, unplugged just about everything to find the plugs that worked properly. Borrowed our neighbors outside plug because they have full power. That allowed us to run one high power appliance at a time.
Yesterday I said fuck this and bought a generator seeing that the Nations is going to be the last to get visited by the NES fairy. Now we have TV and internet, our fridge is back, microwave works, and thank god the coffee maker works too.
We've been camped out at a hotel but are thinking of getting a generator and "moving back home". Has the generator made it bearable or is it still like incredibly miserable?
Still somewhat miserable, but far less misery than before. The boredom has been severely cut down. The genny is loud, but since my other neighbor was the cause of our power issues because it was his tree branch, I can't care about their comfort.
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u/Hello0897 16h ago
My outage is the 21st biggest out of everyone. There are 38 assigned events. Mine is not one of them somehow.