More than 12,000 Vermont households were left without electrical power on Monday after the second major snowstorm in just a week caused outages across the state, according to data from VTOutages.org, a website that tracks power outages in Vermont.
Outages were widespread in the northeastern corner of the state, which received the brunt of the storm. Parts of Orleans County received as much as 12 inches of snow, while some parts of Washington and Orange counties received over 10 inches, according to data from the National Weather Service.
“Temperatures have been hovering very close to freezing — if it goes a degree or two one way or another, you know, a little warmer and it can be rain, a little colder and it can be snow,” said Maureen Hastings, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Burlington. “So then we get this very heavy, wet snow that we’re seeing now.
“This really heavy snow, what it does is weigh down tree branches, especially things like evergreens, which still have their leaves so branches can break, they may just sag and hit a powerline, or a whole tree can even go down and hit a powerline.”
Although representatives from utility companies said that teams were working quickly to restore power, the total number of reported power outages across the state continued to steadily climb throughout Monday morning as a result of the ongoing storm, according to VTOutages.org.
“We continue to watch the weather. Snow unloading from trees can sometimes cause more outages, but right now our crews are making tremendous progress,” said Kristin Kelly, Green Mountain Power’s director of communications.
As of 10:30 a.m., more than 3,000 Green Mountain Power customers remained without electrical power, according to VTOutages.org. Green Mountain Power expects to restore power to all of its customers by the end of the day, Kelly said.
Vermont Electric Cooperative reported more than 2,100 customers without power late Monday morning. Municipal electric departments in Barton, Hyde Park and Lyndonville also showed major outages in their territories, with more than 1,000 households affected.
“There’s a lot of damage out there,” said Louis Porter, general manager for Washington Electric Cooperative.
As of 10:30 a.m., about 3,200 Washington Electric Cooperative customers remained without power, according to data from VTOutages.org. Porter said the company had crews working on damaged power lines as early as 1 a.m., but it still might take several days for all of their customers to have their power restored.
“Washington Electric Coop covers the most rural electric territory in the Northeastern United States, which matters a lot in these outages because it means we have a lot of miles to patrol for every customer we have,” Porter said.
“We have a difficult territory, with a lot of lines that are away from the roads, a lot of trees, a lot of really rugged and hilly terrain. All of those things make restoration particularly difficult in our territory,” he said.
