Heavy thunderstorms hit Vermont on Thursday, triggering a flash flood warning for part of Bennington County and causing power outages across the state.
Storms began rolling over the state early Thursday morning, and by the afternoon, the National Weather Service had issued severe thunderstorm warnings for the area around Rutland, Middlebury, Montpelier and much of Windsor County. Warnings for high winds and tornadoes were also issued for much of the state.
“We definitely are seeing several parts of power outages, trees down, power lines down, those are the main impacts of this line of storm,” said Adrianna Kremer, a meteorologist in the Burlington office of the National Weather Service.
As of 4 p.m., high winds and heavy rain had left more than 20,000 customers without power, mostly in Windsor and Bennington counties.
WCAX and NBC5 reported a possible tornado around Woodstock.
“We have outages in all of our districts, so we have about 15 district offices around the state, and the hardest hit are in Sunderland, White River, Montpelier and Royalton districts,” said Kristin Carlson, a spokesperson for Green Mountain Power.
Carlson said that crews had already restored power to 10,000 customers by late afternoon, but it was too early to give an estimate as to when power would be restored to those still without it.
A flash flood warning was issued in Dorset and Sandgate in Bennington County, with an inch and a half of rain rapidly dropping on the region, according to Kremer. The warning is in effect until 6 p.m.
The line of storms was set to pass over Vermont by the end of Thursday, according to the weather service.
“Luckily the main impacts are slowly moving out of Vermont in the next hour or so, so it should be improving here on out,” Kremer said. “But definitely just encourage people to stay weather-aware and be safe today.”
Storms and prolonged rain are expected throughout the weekend starting Friday night, with the possibility of more thunderstorms, according to the weather service.
