Winter storm's power outages hammer the South
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Nashville Electric Service linemen work to repair power lines in Nashville on Jan. 30. Photo: Matt Masters/Anadolu via Getty Images
While most of the South is bouncing back from the ongoing winter storms, the crisis in Nashville and parts of Mississippi is dragging into another week, with at least 37 dead and tens of thousands still without power.
Why it matters: Unlike Texas in 2021, power generation held up. The failures were more mundane: Icy trees snapped power lines, and crews struggled to reach damaged poles. That's left a patchwork recovery: Most of the region is recovering, but tens of thousands remain stuck without heat in freezing temperatures.
Driving the news: At least 37 people have died — 21 in Tennessee, 16 in Mississippi — according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Sunday operations briefing.
- As of Monday morning, more than 50,000 Mississippians and 28,000 Tennesseans remained out of power, per PowerOutage.us.
- Power in Nashville — where nearly half the city lost electricity after about half an inch of ice on Jan. 25 — is expected to be fully restored by Feb. 9, the Nashville Electric Service said Sunday.
- The North East Mississippi Electric Power Association, which has 10,700 outages, did not provide a restoration timeline.
Between the lines: President Trump approved 12 emergency declarations, unlocking FEMA resources. More than 5,300 National Guard members were deployed to respond to the storms in 15 states as of Jan. 26.
- FEMA did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.
- The storm response comes after DHS ordered FEMA to cut its workforce in half in the coming months, according to a lawsuit filed last week by federal employee unions and local governments.
- It's unclear whether FEMA will provide individual assistance to storm victims. The agency has 19 disaster declarations awaiting Trump's approval — 11 more than a month old.
- FEMA entered 2026 already short-staffed. A September GAO report found the agency began the 2025 hurricane season with just 12% of its field workforce available — a record low.
Friction point: In Nashville, critics of the Nashville Electric Service say the utility should have had more linemen in the field quicker, Axios Nashville's Nate Rau writes. The utility scaled up to over 1,000 within five days of the storm.
- Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell joined the chorus of critics, questioning NES's "pace of restoration" and its ability to communicate to customers. On Monday, he created a commission to review the company's storm response.
Context: Most power outages from the storm resolved within eight to 16 hours, according to energy analysts at financial research group Jefferies.
- The grid largely held up — but it still needs a lot of work, Georg Rute, founder and CEO of grid intelligence company Gridraven, told Axios' Chuck McCutcheon.
Flashback: Winter Storm Uri in 2021 left millions without power in Texas and caused at least 200 freezing deaths. Meteorologists compared last month's storm to Uri.
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