On Thursday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show, host and CEO of The Tennessee Star Michael Patrick Leahy and the outlet’s lead reporter Tom Pappert framed the aftermath of Winter Storm Fern as a tale of two electric utilities, sharply contrasting the response of Middle Tennessee Electric (MTE) and Nashville Electric Service (NES) following widespread power outages across Middle Tennessee.
Leahy first highlighted the stark disparity in outage numbers between the two utilities, pointing out how NES, which serves roughly 440,000 customers, still had more than 90,000 households without power as of Thursday morning – nearly 20 percent of its customer base.
By contrast, MTE, which serves approximately 359,000 customers across Rutherford, Williamson, and Wilson counties, reported that only about 130 customers remained without power at the same time.
To illustrate the contrast in leadership and communication between the two companies, Leahy played a video update from MTE President and CEO Chris Jones, who has provided frequent on-camera briefings throughout the storm response.
In the clip, Jones told customers that restoration efforts were “at completion” and that crews were actively addressing the handful of remaining outages, prioritizing those who had been without power for multiple days. Jones also explained ongoing challenges, including situations where power could not be restored until homeowners repaired damaged electrical equipment, and warned that lingering cold conditions could still cause isolated outages.
Leahy contrasted Jones’ visible, proactive communication with the relative absence of NES President and CEO Teresa Broyles-Aplin, noting that she had not appeared on camera during the outage crisis.
Instead, Leahy read from a written statement Broyles-Aplin released to customers early Thursday acknowledging that many were waking up to a fifth day without power and describing the storm as “unprecedented” for Nashville.
In the statement, Broyles-Aplin said “many” NES customers can expect the company to not have power restored “through the weekend or longer.”
“That’s not exactly a warming message,” Leahy said.
Pappert agreed, calling the message “pathetic,” adding, “I would be just furious if I received that message this morning, especially if I woke up in a hotel room because I couldn’t stay at home due to a power outage.”
The conversation then turned to tree maintenance and storm preparation, with Leahy questioning whether Nashville’s extensive tree canopy – and how it is managed – contributed to the prolonged outages.
He pointed to Broyles-Aplin’s comments in August 2025 where she praised NES’ prioritization of preserving Nashville’s urban tree canopy through restrained trimming practices rather than aggressive removal.
“We care about the canopy. We have to live here too,” Broyles-Aplin said at the time. “And so I don’t want us out destroying the canopy.”
This, compared to MTE’s vegetation management specialist, Ethan Weibrecht, telling NewsChannel 5 last year that it takes only seconds for a tree limb to knock out a power line and that MTE’s aggressive, cyclical vegetation management – which included pruning energized lines on a six-year cycle and removing hazardous trees before storms hit – is specifically designed to prevent exactly the kind of widespread, prolonged outages Nashville experienced after Winter Storm Fern.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
