AT&T officials announced Sunday that they have restored more than 75 percent of their mobility sites impacted by Friday’s explosion in downtown Nashville.
As reported, an RV exploded Friday in Nashville, outside an AT&T transmission building. The blast caused extensive damage and knocked out phone and internet communications throughout Middle Tennessee.
Company officials said in a press release that they expect additional improvements as more equipment comes back online.
“Mobility service in the Birmingham and Huntsville, Alabama areas is now operating normally,” AT&T officials said.
“We continue to connect generator power to equipment and refuel generators as needed. We expect to activate power to at least four additional floors of the building during the day today and are working on the cooling equipment to manage the temperatures in the facility. Teams are assessing equipment on the building’s lower floors for any damage caused by the flooding of the building.”
AT&T officials also said that they had restored power to four floors of their building in Nashville. On Saturday they pumped more than three feet of water out of the building’s basement, but they also said that access to the building’s lower floors was limited.
“Teams are working to safely bring additional equipment online and reroute services through other facilities in the region. While mobility services have been restored in many areas, we still have more than 17 portable cell sites on the air to aid in communication, including for restoration teams and first responders,” AT&T officials said.
“We are bringing in additional resources to support the recovery of wireline voice and data services and expect to have a fleet of 24 additional trailers of disaster recovery equipment on site by the end of the day.”
AT&T officials also said that their building sustained significant damage, including to the elevators, some beams/columns, and the building’s façade.
“Additionally, we are contributing $100,000 to the Nashville Convention and Visitors Corporation to support area businesses impacted by the recent explosion and to help law enforcement collect information for their ongoing investigation,” AT&T officials said.
As reported, the explosion damaged at least 41 businesses on Second Avenue and collapsed one building. The blast went off at 166 Second Avenue North around 6:30 a.m. Friday.
Nashville Mayor John Cooper said he had spoken with Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee. The governor, Cooper said, was working to declare a civil emergency. That declaration would allow members of the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency to work with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to commit to rebuild Second Avenue, Cooper said.
The Christmas Day explosion collapsed one residential building, said Nashville Fire Chief William Swann at a Friday evening press conference. Swann did not say which building. He also said that the structural integrity of surrounding buildings “are in question.”
The blast injured at least three people.
Members of the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department told The Tennessee Star Sunday that they are officially investigating Anthony Quinn Warner in the Christmas morning explosion.
– – –
Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Tennessee Star. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
I am not a big fan of AT&T but I must commend them for the outstanding effort they made to get things up and running in a very short time.