ADDISON COUNTY — High winds on Friday afternoon and evening toppled trees and knocked down powerlines throughout the Green Mountain State, resulting in more than 50,000 Vermonters losing power.

In Addison County at least 500 people in Middlebury were without power on Friday evening, with many more in other Addison County towns, according the to the Green Mountain Power outage tracker. A few places here didn’t get electricity back until Sunday.

As of Monday morning, 1,300 customers still needed to be reconnected to the power grid, but only one of those was in Addison County, with the rest mostly in Chittenden and Franklin counties.

Green Mountain Power linemen pick up an electricity transformer that was broken when it smashed onto Route 116 after its utility pole fell during the 60 mph winds on Friday evening. Power was restored in the area by Saturday morning.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

The heavy weather came as the brunt of Tropical Depression Debby hit Vermont on Friday evening. The National Weather Service in Burlington detected gusts in excess of 60 miles per hour. 

Heavy rain first arrived in Vermont overnight Thursday, as remnants of Debby, originally a hurricane, moved in from the south and west, dropping up to 2 inches of rain in some northern and central parts of the state.

The storm prompted tornado and flood warnings across Vermont, including a tornado warning in Addison County. Vermont Emergency Management had not heard of any flood related damage but received reports of road closures in Addison County.

Trees were down across the region. In Middlebury, authorities closed Route 116 north of Quarry Road, were trees had fallen onto electric wires and knocked some utility poles over. Residents in Bristol and Lincoln also reported damage due to fallen trees, though damage was thought to be more widespread.

When a tree knocked over a utility pole off Case Street in Middlebury Friday evening, the broken electric line created a small fire on the ground near the entrance to Mead Lane. No one was hurt, but the road was closed for hours.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

After high winds cascaded through Addison County on Friday evening, a couple walks amidst the tree limbs and leaves that scattered across Mead Lane in Middlebury.
Independent photo/John S. McCright

On Case Street in Middlebury, Cathy Sagendorf saw snapped power line fall in her front yard. The line was broken but electricity arched between two live sections that touch on the ground. A flame was ignited, the ground was scorched and some of the soil was turned into a hard, glass-like substance from the intense heat.

The fire was quickly extinguished, and no one was injured. But residents in the Mead Lane/Butternut Ridge neighborhood were trapped for hours while Green Mountain Power and other crews cleared fallen trees off Case Street, Route 116. There was evidence that trees had been down on the highway further north into Bristol and Monkton. A GMP crew was seen still making repairs on Rout 116 in Middlebury on Sunday afternoon.