Power crews work around the clock to restore electricity to Vermonters

BETHEL, Vt. (WCAX) - Power crews continue to work to turn the lights back on for customers who have been without electricity for several days since last week’s storm.

As of late Monday afternoon, there were still more than 3,000 customers without power across Vermont, primarily in Windsor, Washington and Orange counties.

According to officials from Green Mountain Power, the recent snowstorm was the third most significant in recent memory in terms of outages.

“It started now Thursday night and we lost power Saturday morning at 1:30 a.m.,” said Lucynda Hall of Woodstock.

A generator powered the heat and lights at Hall’s home as GMP crews worked across the street to fix a downed line.

“A lot of our neighbors have left, they have gone to kids’ houses and all that. Some of them at home with generators, and others are just toughing it out,” Hall said.

The weekend snowstorm was historic in terms of outages.

“Crews have restored power to over 103,000 customers and we will get the rest on very quickly,” said Kristin Carlson of GMP.

A command center at GMP’s Bethel offices helped coordinate efforts across the region which included the help of contracted power crews from out of state.

“Looking at the forecast, knowing it could hit really had, we had lined up hundreds of extra lineworkers so that they were here in Vermont,” Carlson said.

In some cases, getting to the trouble spots was slow going. Trees and debris needed to be removed first before crews could do the work.

“The snow that fell was wet and heavy and it acted like cement that really brings down the wires and the trees causing a lot of damage,” Carlson said.

Back at Hall’s home in Woodstock, the tractor was put to good use clearing driveways and checking in on neighbors.

“It was a pretty big storm and I think it was more than anyone was expecting, as far as snow and heaviness and breaking trees,” Hall said.

Officials say GMP is proactively reaching out to customers still in the dark. They say they will be working around the clock until all of the lights are turned back on.

Meanwhile, it appears power has been restored in our regions of New Hampshire and New York. The outage maps for New York Electric and Gas and Eversource listed no outages in the North Country and Upper Valley as of noontime.

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