NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — The catastrophic ice storm in January quickly became one of the most disruptive weather events in Nashville’s history, knocking out power to roughly 230,000 homes and businesses in the greater metro area. The system triggered outages in subfreezing temperatures for nearly two weeks, contributing to five deaths in Davidson County.
As frustration mounted over stalled restoration and communication breakdowns from Nashville Electric Service, the Metro Nashville Council ultimately voted that the utility should be more transparent when it comes to its contracts with vendors, especially for consulting firms used to help it navigate the backlash.
FOX17 found NES spent tens of thousands of dollars hiring multiple, new public relations and consulting firms at the tail end of the storm, in addition to millions of dollars in existing contracts and consultants, already on the payroll…