Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s silence on ice storms that wracked Memphis and left thousands without power continued Wednesday, nearly a week since the situation began.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris declared states of emergency after the ice storm caused widespread damage and knocked out power to nearly 130,000 Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) customers. Financial thresholds of damage must be met to trigger state and federal emergency declarations, and Lee would have to have a say-so in the matter. Such a declaration would provide millions of dollars for the clean-up and restoration efforts.
While meetings on the matter may be happening out of public view, Lee has been silent on the ice storm in his public communications. No news release has been issued from his press team. No visit to Shelby County has been announced.
On Twitter, where Lee is most active on social media, the governor acknowledged that bad weather had moved into the state. He announced Friday that some state offices in West and Middle Tennessee would be closed or open late due to “hazardous weather and travel conditions.” This is as close as Lee has come to talking publicly about the ice storm that left tens of thousands of Memphians without power and may have killed four people.
Following his weather tweets, Lee tweeted twice about his office’s renewed legal challenge to the federal vaccine mandate. Later that same Friday, as Memphians huddled inside their houses hoping the next falling tree branch wouldn’t pierce their windows or roof, Lee tweeted his proclamation that “the Olympics are covering for Beijing’s brutality but Tennesseans acknowledge the truth, stand against the evil being carried out in plain sight and send our support to U.S. Olympians overseas.”
On Saturday, Lee was proud that the Tennessee State Capitol building in Nashville was lit red for the American Heart Association.
After a Sunday Twitter break, Lee was back Monday wishing Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett a happy birthday.
On Tuesday, as the continuous whine of chainsaws filled the Memphis air, the governor congratulated state employees who earned the Governor’s Excellence in Service Awards.
On that Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Memphis) wrote to Lee requesting that Lee request federal help in the clean-up effort.
“The preliminary damage estimate provided to the West Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) by ML GW is $13 million as of February 7th, 2022” Cohen wrote. “[The Federal Emergency Management Agency – FEMA] administers various programs which could potentially provide relief. For example, the Public Assistance Grant Program could assist with debris removal, repair, replacement or restoration of disaster-damaged and publicly owned facilities. The Individual Assistance and Household programs could assist with temporary residences (rental assistance) or repairs to make
homes safe, sanitary and functional.
“Since the amount of damage from this storm has already exceeded the minimum requirement, I believe a swift request of disaster assistance is prudent to ensure that our county can receive the
necessary support to adequately address the damages that have been incurred.”
Lee had not publicly responded to the letter by Wednesday morning.
But on Wednesday morning, as more than 37,000 MLGW customers were still without power, Lee was back on Twitter to announce that he named Butch Ely, the state’s Commissioner of Finance and Administration, to be deputy governor.
His silence got Lee a dragging over on the Memphis subreddit where u/Shakeitright asked in a Monday post, “where is the governor?”
