Hundreds of customers without power 3 days after Debby blew through Vermont

Updated at 5:28 p.m.

Just over 500 Vermont electric customers are still without power three days after the remnants of Hurricane Debby hit the state, according to vtoutages.org .

As of 5:15 p.m. Monday, almost all of the outages were connected to the Vermont Electric Cooperative. Outages were concentrated in Chittenden and Lamoille counties, according to the website.

At its peak, the storm caused nearly 1,000 outages that led more than 50,000 customers to lose power as rain and high winds hit Vermont. That number has dropped precipitously in the past three days, but the last outages have lingered as power companies scramble to turn the lights back on.

Andrea Cohen, a spokesperson for Vermont Electric Cooperative, said that Debby was an almost “unprecedented” event that brought high winds in a different direction than usual, leading to fallen trees, broken poles and downed wires all over their coverage area in the northern half of the state.

She said that as of 4:45 p.m. Monday, the utility expected to have most of the remaining outages resolved by the end of the day. The remaining outages might require special equipment to restore.

Leah Korce of Richford was one of the customers to get her power back on Monday. On Friday night, she was walking around her 27-acre property when she heard a huge “crack” and saw “a white light go from one end of the property to the other.” Poles had fallen down and wires were hanging loose in several locations.

She immediately called Vermont Electric Cooperative, but when workers showed up the next morning, they said it would need special equipment to be fixed. It wasn’t until 8:30 on Monday morning that a crew came and fully fixed the outage.

Korce said she was frustrated by the lack of clarity and coldness from the electric company employees over the phone.

“It’s not the crews. Those guys are great,” she said. “It’s the leadership.”

Speaking broadly, Cohen said that she understands why people are frustrated, but the utility prioritizes safety issues first, followed by upstream power issues that must be fixed first to get power down the line.

She also reminded customers to stay away from downed lines. It might be tempting to try to help, but these situations can be “really, really dangerous,” she said.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Hundreds of customers without power 3 days after Debby blew through Vermont .