ADDISON COUNTY — The severe thunderstorm that rolled through Vermont last Wednesday caused extensive damage, leaving 1,500 Addison County residents temporarily without power and toppling five utility poles.
Crews from Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) worked around the clock to restore power to homes in Middlebury, East Middlebury and Weybridge, where the majority of the damage took place.
Christine Rivers of CVPS said the storm was highly localized, hitting certain areas extremely hard, but missing others entirely.
“You could drive down the road and see some serious damage,” said Rivers, “then go a little further and it would look like nothing happened at all.”
The majority of homes in Addison County that lost power had it back by early Thursday morning, and everything was back up and running by the end of the day Thursday. CVPS’ own building on Route 7 experienced a temporary power outage due to a downed utility pole.
The storm caused damage and power outages in seven Vermont counties, including Franklin, Chittenden, Addison, Orange, Windsor, Rutland and Bennington.
Although Addison County was hit relatively hard by the storms, Chittenden County experienced the most extensive damage. Lightning strikes started five fires, including one that burned down the parish hall of the Roman Catholic Diocese in Burlington.