Violent windstorm hits Vermont
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By THATCHER MOATS STAFF WRITER - Published: June 1, 2009
BARRE – A sudden windstorm that swept through northern Vermont late Sunday afternoon felled trees, cut power to thousands of homes and left hail and snow in its wake.
Several homes and automobiles were damaged when trees came crashing down, police and fire officials said, and Radio Station WDEV in Waterbury was knocked off the air for a while when it lost power at 4:45 p.m.
The storm was caused by a cold front that swooped down from Ontario, Canada, and traveled across the state, from Addison County up to the northeast Kingdom, according to the National Weather Service in Burlington.
The strongest wind gust recorded was 61 mph in Calais, according to an initial report from the National Weather Service. The next highest gust was 54 mph in New Haven, with most gusts tending to be in the 30 to 40 mph range.
Widespread electrical outages hit as the front blew through. Green Mountain Power said 5,500 of the company's customers were without power as of 6:30 p.m., including in Montpelier, Barre and Waterbury
That's the highest number of outages since an ice storm hit southern Vermont last winter, a spokesman for the company said.
"This is the worst since then," said Robert Dostis.
Central Vermont Public Service spokeswoman Christine Rivers said the high winds left about 6,200 customers without power as of Sunday around 6 p.m.
Rivers said the outages were quite scattered throughout Central Vermont, with about 230 customers out in Brattleboro and about 900 in Springfield. Winds of about 40 mph in Rutland County caused about 200 outages and Bennington County had only about 40 of the utility's customers without power early Sunday evening.
The hardest hit area was Caledonia County with more than 2,000 outages.
Rivers said the winds had kicked up around 4 or 5 p.m. and started causing problems like downed lines from falling trees or tree limbs and broken utility poles.
Central Vermont Public Service employees were working on restoring power and Rivers said many of them would probably end up working through the night.
Washington Electric Co-op, which serves 41 towns in Washington, Orange and Caledonia counties, had about 1,100 members who were without power at 8:11 p.m. The towns of Fayston, Washington and Williamstown had the most outages, said the general manager of the Co-op, Avram Patt.
Workers from both utilities were busy repairing lines yesterday evening and officials expected them to be working late into the night.
"It's all hands on deck," Dostis said.
Local rescue workers were out in force as the reports of trees falling on power lines and across roads surged into fire departments.
Deputy Chief Russell Ashe, of the Barre City Fire Department, said the department responded to 12 calls, which all came in a 15-minute period starting at 5:12 p.m.
One tree fell on a house on Brook Street and another smashed a car in the area of College Street, Ashe said.
In Montpelier, two houses were hit by trees and four streets had to be blocked off when trees and power lines fell across them, the chief there said.
The Barre City and Montpelier fire departments – which also dispatch for smaller surrounding towns – reported no injuries from the storm.
Broken power lines ignited a few trees in the two cities, but the fires did not spread.
On Brook Street in Barre, three people were trapped in a second story apartment when half of a large maple tree fell onto the outdoor stairway that led to the residence. The tree also knocked a porch roof down, which blocked the exit, forcing firefighters to use a chainsaw to cut away the roof.
Joe Sicely, 42, was in his apartment watching a NASCAR race with his 6-year-old son when the lights went out. When he looked out the window, he saw the tree falling into the house and picked up his son and ran across the apartment, away from the exterior wall.
"I grabbed him and ran, because I saw it coming," said Sicely.
Sicely's son, Victor Maldanado, was terrified by the event and Sicely said he was still shaking about an hour later.
The maple tree fell across a lawn outside the apartment building at the corner of Brook and Pleasant streets. Sicely said 10 minutes before the tree fell his son was playing in the lawn.
"It's a good thing no one got hurt," said Sicely.
Joe Sicely's brother, Richard Sicely, was also in the apartment. The three were eventually freed from the apartment building when firefighters cut a hole in a wall inside an adjacent apartment.
Fire crews in East Montpelier were called out as numerous trees blocked roads or fell on power lines, including Towne Hill and Brazier Road, both of which were closed for a while Sunday evening.
In Montgomery Center, weather officials reported half-inch hail — the largest initial report — with smaller hail reported in other towns.
Snow was seen coating trees in the Northeast Kingdom, according to Aimee Fish, a forecaster at the National Weather Service.
"Happy May 31st," she said.
Staff writer Patrick McArdle contributed to this report.
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