MIDDLEBURY — About 1,500 Green Mountain Power customers in Middlebury village and its immediate surroundings were without electricity this morning for about four hours after a squirrel damaged a main power line near the Middlebury Inn, a GMP spokesperson said.
GMP Director of Communications Kristin Carlson said company crews arrived on the scene shortly after the initial outage, a flicker at 6:42 a.m. The power went completely out at 7:39 a.m., and Carlson said workers had the line repaired at about 11 p.m. Carlson said the company especially understood how vital it was for downtown shops to open on Black Friday, and GMP brought in outside help to make sure repairs were done as quickly as possible, with about double the normal number of line workers on the scene. “We brought in extra crews to work the repairs,” she said. 
Outage areas included downtown, Court Street and Route 7 South, and homes in the village on the east side of Otter Creek and on roads leading out of the village. The Independent has received a report that many homes in New Haven were also affected.