Misinformation Compounds Challenges as Nashville Grapples with Winter Storm Crisis

As Nashville enters its third day of widespread power outages following Sunday’s devastating winter storm, a wave of unverified information and rumors circulating on social media has intensified the emergency situation gripping Tennessee’s capital.

The severe winter weather has left more than 200,000 Nashville Electric Service (NES) customers without electricity, forcing residents to seek temporary shelter or endure freezing temperatures in homes without heat. As of Tuesday afternoon, approximately 135,000 homes and businesses remained without power in what officials are calling the most significant outage in NES history.

One particularly persistent rumor spreading across social media platforms claims that NES has rejected assistance from union linemen to avoid paying their wages. When questioned about this allegation at Tuesday’s emergency press briefing, Brent Baker, the NES utility operations executive overseeing storm repair, dismissed the claim.

“I’m not familiar too much with the details of what you mentioned there,” Baker stated. “We do have a union workforce and contractors from all over who are coming to help us.” He explained that the utility has continuously brought in additional workers as they’ve become available.

Maura-Lee Albert of SEIU, the union representing NES workers, backed the utility’s position. “I believe NES management who say they haven’t turned away workers — they want to see power restored just as much as everyone else,” Albert said. “There are legitimate things to rage-bait about right now — let’s not focus on unsubstantiated rumors. We have union crews out there pulling 16-hour shifts.”

However, Albert did highlight a longer-term staffing concern, noting that NES hasn’t expanded its workforce in a decade despite Nashville’s significant growth. “NES should, at a minimum, have 150 more employees in frontline positions,” she told the Scene. “We need to scale up, because we are a growing city.”

The storm’s physical impact is plainly visible throughout Nashville, with ice-laden trees crashing onto power lines, vehicles, and blocking roadways. Despite the abundance of authentic photos documenting the destruction, artificially generated images have gained significant traction online. One AI-generated photo depicting an exaggerated ice storm scene received over 100,000 likes on Instagram before being deleted.

The misleading image showed distorted features that, upon closer examination, revealed telltale signs of artificial creation — branches morphing into power lines and cars blurring into houses — yet it was widely shared as authentic documentation of the crisis.

Mayor Freddie O’Connell and emergency officials have refrained from providing specific timelines for service restoration, instead characterizing the outages and freezing conditions as “multiday” and “prolonged.” The city continues to promote warming shelters throughout Davidson County for those without heat.

“The emergency declaration was issued for an up-to-seven-days period, and we expect it to be active for the entirety,” O’Connell stated Tuesday. “Not only having that declaration but encouraging people to document things they are dealing with is going to be crucial as we move on to recovery beyond this immediate impact period.”

Officials urge residents to rely on official channels for information during the ongoing crisis. The emergency declaration will remain in effect for several more days, with authorities planning to reassess as recovery progresses.

The combination of extreme weather, infrastructure challenges, and misinformation presents a complex crisis for Nashville residents and officials alike, highlighting the importance of accurate communication during emergency situations and raising questions about utility preparedness for increasingly extreme weather events.