Sunday wind storm leads to “record-breaking” number of power outages in Nashville, Tennessee.
The Nashville blackout was caused by a derecho, a widespread and long-lasting straight-line wind storm of hurricane force, that struck the city during the evening of Sunday 3 May.
Winds in excess of 70mph ripped through the region, tearing down trees and knocking out more than 200 electricity pylons. Further bad weather on Monday and Tuesday caused additional problems.
At its peak, the blackout left upwards of 131,000 Nashville Electric Service (NES) customers without power.
Crews continuing to make significant progress in restoring power. 90% of customers have power since storms caused more than 131k outages. Approximately 13k customers remain without power. NES will work 14-hour shifts, around the clock until all power is restored. pic.twitter.com/Yz6qSIzUMd
— Nashville Electric (@NESpower) May 6, 2020
By Wednesday, NES President and CEO Decosta Jenkins revealed that supplies had been restored to 115,000 people. But he warned it could take up to a fortnight to fully restore electricity to thousands of others.
Thought to be one of the city’s largest-ever storms, the derecho struck just two months after devastating tornadoes ripped through the Nashville, killing more than 20 people and damaging hundreds of properties.
Storm force winds can cause havoc to electricity networks. As was the case in Nashville, falling trees have the potential to bring down pylons and transmission lines.
Earlier this year, Storm Ciara led to power cuts across parts of England and Wales. While back in October 2013, the St Jude Storm’s near 100mph winds left up to 850,000 homes across the south-east of England with no electricity.
While back in October 1987, the biggest storm to hit the UK in almost 300 years caused death, destruction and devastation across the UK.
