ADDISON COUNTY — Thousands of Addison County residents were without power on Wednesday morning, after heavy winds from an intense winter storm downed trees and damaged utility lines throughout the region.

As of Wednesday afternoon, outages had been reported in 15 of the county’s 23 towns, leaving more than 4,000 residents without power.

As a result, utility crews were busy on Wednesday working to clear county roads and restore power across the region. According to the Green Mountain Power (GMP) Outage Center, an active incident on Hewitt Road in Bristol left 2,538 residents without power in the towns of Bristol, Lincoln, Ripton and Starksboro.

In Middlebury, more than 500 residents were still without power on Wednesday due to 18 active incidents throughout the shire town.

Damaging winds knocked out power in other parts of the state as well. Widespread outages left an estimated 12,595 Vermonters without power in 72 towns throughout the state on Wednesday, according to the GMP Outage Center.