By Patrick Mcardle
patrick.mcardle @rutlandherald.com
MONTPELIER, Vt. — On Friday afternoon, Gov. Phil Scott, and leaders of several state agencies along with Vermont power companies, talked about the effects of the windstorm that began Thursday and had been expected to continue through Friday afternoon.
Scott said the heavy wind and rain had created power outages, road closure and flooding.
“Thousands are without power and more are expected to lose service in today’s high and gusty winds,” Scott said.
The Vermont Emergency Operations Center opened at 6 a.m. to assist towns with response and recovery. Representatives from Vermont Emergency Management, Vermont State Police, the Swiftwater Rescue team and the departments of transportation, environmental conservation, human services and others provided resources and support, according to a release sent by Mark Bosma, public information officer for Vermont Emergency Management.
As of about 5 p.m. on Friday, almost 24,000 Green Mountain Power customers were without power because of more than 1,300 incidents from more than 150 towns.
Emphasizing safety, Scott told Vermonters not to drive over flooded road and never to approach or touch downed lines even if they seemed inactive.
Scott described the storm’s impact as “significant” and said further hazards were likely to have developed on Friday.
Mari McClure, incoming president and CEO of Green Mountain Power, said the storm packed a “one-two punch of high winds and flooding.”
McClure said GMP crews had restored power for more than 52,000 customers.
From the New England region, 100 line-workers from other companies have joined GMP repair crews, McClure said, but they reported Friday that conditions were “hazardous,” and there were roads throughout Vermont that workers found impassable.
McClure said she expected some customers won’t have power restored until next week.
Rebecca Towne, CEO of Vermont Electric Co-op, said her utility’s message was similar to the report from GMP. She said that as of about 1:30 p.m., about 20% of co-op customers, or about 8,300 customers, were affected.
Patty Richards, general manager of the Washington Electric Co-op, said about half of its members had no power.
“The Washington Electric Co-op has some of the most rural service area of the state. We’re the least dense utility so definitely our folks without power tend to be without power longer,” she said.
Richards said Washington Electric staff members are telling people to plan for a multi-day outage. She urged people who need shelter to contact the state for emergency accommodations.
Richards said some customers may not have power restored until Thursday.
According to Richards, there are almost 200 outage events to which Washington Electric is responding.
Joe Flynn, secretary of the Vermont Agency of Transportation, said most of the damage to state roads, found on 20 “damage sites,” were concentrated in six of the northern counties of Vermont including a bridge on Route 105 in Richford.
“We won’t know the full extent of the damage in all these locations until the water recedes,” he said.
The bridge in Richford is still in place, but everything beneath it has washed away, Flynn said.
According to the Vermont Judiciary website, the Windham criminal court in Brattleboro, the Windham civil court in Newfane and the Windsor civil and probate courts in Woodstock were without power and closed Friday.
The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory on Friday morning with the expectation it would remain in effect until 5 p.m.
Chris Herrick, deputy commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, said swiftwater rescue teams conducted nine evacuations on Friday from homes in Enosburg and Johnson, and assisted isolated people, mostly in vehicles in Fletcher, Londonderry, Montgomery and Westford.
There have been 11 towns reporting major impacts and 63 have reported minor impact. Some towns have opened local shelters.
Scott said state officials will be considering an emergency declaration after tending to the safety of the people affected by the storm and emergency responders.
Many in Vermont towns are waiting to see how the water coming from high-elevation rivers to low-elevation towns will affect their communities, Scott added.
There were no reports of injuries from the storm.
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.