It's been a strange couple of days here in #nashville, knowing this happened but not able to get any information until now bc of phone and wifi outage. @WPLN replayed the same 1 min story all day between regular Xmas and weekend programs. Saying check *online for updates...Right. https://twitter.com/NC5PhilWilliams/status/1343030655089840130

AM radio digging in deep with conspiracy theories (looks familiar now that I can access Twitter!).

The only 3 local live TV channels coming in on the antennae playing reruns of Home Improvement and an interview with a vandy Prof on their recent book...

This has been a massive public communications fail. I get that it caught folks by surprise. But tornados can and do knock out infrastructure. We know that. There has to be a better plan than everybody spinning out on their own until AT&T plugs the burned up, frozen box back in.

In the absence of real info people in my house have thought the following in last 48 hrs:

We're under seige.
We should stay.
We should go.
We should go out and see if we can find wifi anywhere.
We should check on [neighbors].
We should plan for a broader infrastructure attack.

This has to be a nut job.
This has to be Russia.
This is a cover for something worse.
We should stay.
We should go.
We need milk.

Without real updates or instructions (stay home, it's still a pandemic), without any way to reach emergency services (literally the radio: "metro Nashville posted alternate 911 phone numbers on social media. Check online..." Right. Let me just click. Yea. Still out.)

Without real info about what's going on, there is nothing to counter the conspiracy nuts. Even rational folks start spinning out a bit.

Without real info, people went out looking for news, in a pandemic, in an uncertain and unsecured situation involving at least one bomb.

This isn't what you want and it's not good disaster management.