A 200-year-old oak tree breaks in half in Thompson Station. (Courtesy:

Thousands remain without power across Middle Tennessee on Saturday morning after storms with straight-line winds knocked trees into power lines.

Currently, there are nearly 50,000 homes and businesses without power across the state of Tennessee. Approximately 19,000 out of power in Kentucky, with most of the outages reported in southern counties.

As of Saturday morning at 7 a.m., the largest outage in the region is in Davidson County, where approximately 22,000 Nashville Electric System customers are still without power across Nashville.

The largest concentration of outages are in Antioch near Mill Creek and by Nashville International Airport.

NES officials sent the following statement to News 2:

“NES crews are continuing to work around the clock to restore power to Middle Tennessee this morning. At this hour, we have approximately 22,000 customers without power. That’s down from 48,000 from overnight. High winds caused trees and power lines to fall across the region, knocking out power. Currently, we have 10 broken poles and 68 fallen lines along with scattered outages throughout our service area. We remind you to stay away from downed wires, and we ask for your patience as we work to restore power.

“To report a power outage, call 615-234-000, text “OUT” to 637797 if you have registered for text message service, or go to our website, nespower.com, if you have signed up for an online account.

“If you are experiencing an extended power outage:

  • Keep freezers and refrigerators closed. The refrigerator will keep food cold for about four hours. A full freezer will keep the temperature for about 48 hours.
  • Gather food supplies that do not require refrigeration.
  • Turn off or disconnect appliances, equipment or electronics. Power may return with momentary ‘surges.'” 

In Dickson, more than 11,000 customers lost power on Friday night, and more than 6,000 are still in the dark the following day. Because of the widespread outages, contract crews have been called in to assist. However, officials warn some could be without power for most of the weekend.

Other electric companies across Tennessee and Southern Kentucky with more than 1,000 customers without power on Saturday are:

  • Cumberland Electric Membership Corp. (CEMC) is reporting outages in Cheatham, Montgomery, Robertson, Stewart and Sumner County.
  • Tri-County Electric REMC reports outages in Allen, Barren, Metcalfe, and Monroe County in Kentucky, and Clay, Macon, Sumner, and Trousdale County in Tennessee.
  • Volunteer Energy Cooperative is reporting outages in Bledsoe, Bradley, Fentress, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and Rhea County.
  • South Kentucky RECC reported outages in Clinton, Pulaski and Wayne County.
  • Pennyrile Electric reporting outages across Christian, Logan, Todd, and Trigg County.

News 2 is working to gather more information about each major outage and will provide updates when available.