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At M.L. Rose, a bar and restaurant in the Capitol View neighborhood near downtown, the lack of internet forced the business to rely on a backup, offline system because of an inability to process cards. Restaurants like Dino’s, a favorite East Nashville dive and burger joint, went cash only and canceled takeout orders, something they have relied upon as the coronavirus pandemic has limited indoor seating.
It could take days before service is fully restored, officials said.
“It is a big operation with the building itself,” William Swann, the chief of the Nashville Fire Department, said at the news conference on Saturday. “We are trying to at least get the generators back in order so that the mobile phones can be back in operation.”
On Saturday morning, Mr. Lee, a Republican, toured the scene and shared a letter he wrote to President Trump asking him to declare an emergency disaster for Tennessee and send federal aid to help recover, given the “severity and magnitude” of the destruction.
At least 41 buildings sustained damage in the blast. At a hostel near the site, security cameras captured footage of the explosion blowing in the front doors of the building, which was filled with dust and debris. More than a day later, the water from sprinklers had not been shut off.
The explosion added to what has already been a devastating year: The Nashville Downtown Hostel largely caters to international vacationers, especially youth travelers, and has suffered an 80 percent drop in revenue from 2019 because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“All of that space has been flooding since the bombing,” said Ron Lamb, who owns the hostel and who has not been able to gain access to the business. “It’s been running for 28 hours.”
“For the first six to twelve hours,” he went on, “I was trying to be very patient because it’s such a big emergency. The blast did some damage to the building, but I’m literally watching my building and my business get flooded away.”
Rick Rojas and Steve Cavendish reported from Nashville, Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio from New York and Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs from Edisto Island, S.C. Jamie McGee contributed reporting from Nashville, Adam Goldman from Washington and Alain Delaquérière contributed research.
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