About 24 hours after powerful winds caused damages, deaths and power outages throughout Middle Tennessee, an around-the-clock effort returned power to many areas Saturday.
In Davidson County, at 3 p.m. about 28,000 Nashville Electric Service customers were still without power and about 87,000 customers had power restored.
In counties north of Nashville, in the Cumberland Electric Membership Corp. service area, about 20,000 customers remained without power, according to Cumberland officials. The counties in the area include Sumner, Robertson, Cheatham, Montgomery and Stewart counties. Robertson County was hardest hit, with about 30% of the utility’s customers in that county without power.
Most of the Middle Tennessee Electric area had power restored with fewer than 100 without power.
In Goodlettsville, a portion of Conference Drive was reported closed due to downed power lines by city officials at noon Saturday. The road is expected to remain closed until further notice. NES reports that it will most likely be Monday before the road is back open.
In the Dickson Electric System coverage area, the “historic and catastrophic” storm-caused power outages had been reduced to about 7,500 without power Saturday at 4:30 p.m. DES officials noted that the recovery is an ”extended outage event” that will stretch into next week.
Friday storm damage
Two people were confirmed dead Friday after the storms, which also triggered severe thunderstorm warnings and tornado watches for Davidson, Maury, Montgomery, Rutherford, Williamson and several other counties.
In Hendersonville, a woman was walking back to her home with a neighbor when a tree fell on her, according to a city news release.
A person was killed in Humphreys County after a tree hit a vehicle, according to Humphreys County authorities.
The power outages in the region reached a peak of around 165,000 early Friday evening.
The storms started in Middle Tennessee around 9 a.m. and moved through the Nashville area just after 11:30 a.m. Several school systems closed in anticipation of the high winds and storms.
NWS Nashville released a list of the strongest wind gusts Friday evening, with the highest being 79 mph at Clarksville Outlaw Field. The Nashville airport saw a 64 mph gust. Other parts of the region ranged from 50-70 mph gusts.