Nashville officials outline response as historic ice storm leaves roughly 135,000 without power

At a virtual briefing from the Metro Nashville Emergency Operations Center, Mayor Freddy O'Connell and city emergency officials provided an update on response and public guidance after a historic ice storm left large parts of the city without power. Officials described restoration progress, sheltering and safety guidance for residents.

The briefing centered on restoring electricity and protecting vulnerable residents. Mayor Freddy O'Connell said the outage was "a historic ice storm," and officials described it as the largest single outage in NES history. Brent Baker, NES chief of operations and innovation, said NES had restored about 100,000 customers since the storm while roughly 135,000 customers remained without power. "We doubled our workforce after the first day," Baker said, adding the utility expected more than 900 line workers to…