Powerless

The Great Freeze continues as almost 100,000 are still without power one week after the ice storm.  It's crazy but according to Nashville Electric Service, our zip code will not have power restored until February 5, 2026.  That will be almost two weeks with no power for our neighborhood.

On the way home from work on Thursday, I drove through my old neighborhood, between 10th Avenue and 8th Avenue.  It was eerie, as there were blocks and blocks of houses in complete darkness.  No lights.  No streetlights.  No human activity.  Very few cars.  It looked like everyone had vanished.  Truly, the mass desertion of entire blocks made it look like a pandemic had wiped everyone out or that there had been a zombie apocalypse.  Really, really strange.

Our street is still largely without power.  Somehow, though, and I hesitate to say it too loudly, we have managed to keep our power on throughout the entire ordeal.  Last night, Jude saw one house on the other side of Linden Avenue, a few houses down from us, with power on.  Other than that, no one.  

Ms. Rachel was at Vanderbilt hospital for a few days.  Her grandson stopped by to pick up some of her things earlier this week and told us she had been moved to a rehabilitation facility.  

On our other side, Maureen has had a terrible go of it.  No power for a week.  She stayed at the Thompson Hotel in the Gulch for a few nights, then was able to get a spot at the Gilmore, a new boutique hotel in 12South, walking distance from our houses.  Thursday night, her daughter's car alarm started going off at 4:30 a.m.  every five minutes.  Unfortunately, when she got back into her house for the first time on Friday morning to check on Erin's car in the driveway in the back yard, she discovered a water pipe had burst and caused massive flooding.  I can't even imagine.  I am so sad for her.

Maureen has had a remediation truck at the house all weekend long trying to remove the moisture and, I suppose, limit a potential mold problem.  Again, I can't even imagine.

Jude and I have been scrambling, trying to find someone to cut down our trees that have fallen into Ms. Rachel's back yard and on her telephone line.  We also need someone with a bucket truck to cut down the dangling leaves at the top of the large elm in the middle of our backyard.  We have a large branch of the elm tree that fell on the roof of our in-progress screened in porch that needs to be removed.  Who knows when anyone will be able to get to those projects.  

All of the arborists have been in triage mode, trying to take care of the most dangerous and serious tree removed projects first, or so it seems.  Maybe they're simply making themselves available to the highest bidder.  For sure, there is some price gouging going on.  I also suspect there are some fly-by-night, "non-arborist" arborists springing up all over town.

This ice storm seems to have been so much more damaging than the one that hit Nashville and surrounding area in 1994.  Maybe it's recency bias, but it feels like there are a to more sustained power outages with this storm.  

Freddie O'Connell, a bit of a bumbling, absent minded professor on his best day - the accidental Mayor, if you will - has come across as unprepared, non-responsive, and ineffectual.  Fair or not, the city doesn't appear to have been prepare for the ice storm, although I am not altogether sure how you prepare for a disaster of this magnitude.  What is more unforgivable, though, is how poorly he has communicated with the people of Nashville in the aftermath of the storm.  It's like he's been in hiding, other than one or two press conferences and the occasional Instagram video as he walks through his neighborhood at night.  O'Connell will be a one-term mayor for certain.

Nashville Electric Service has looked even worse, if that is possible.  Still, what do they care?  N.E.S. in the only game in town.  It's not like a Nashville residence can decide to switch to Middle Tennessee Electric.  It just doesn't work that way.

Jude, the boys, and I are fortunate, so very fortunate.  Everyone is safe.  We have power.  We have some cleanup to accomplish, with help from professionals, but that will be taken care of over time.  So many other neighbors and Nashvillians are hurting.  It's hard to see.