(Host) Two consecutive days of stormy weather dropped about six inches of rain across Vermont.
It’s been disappointing for fall foliage visitors.
But as VPR’s Nina Keck reports, potential flooding and power outages are much less severe than expected.
(Keck) Tourists hoping to take in the fall foliage are likely to be disappointed. But Christine Rivers of Central Vermont Public Service says the region dodged a bullet – as fallout from yesterday and today’s storms turned out to be less than expected.
(Rivers) "Here at CVPS, we only saw about 3,000 customers lose power at the peak in the middle of the night last night. And now we’re down to about 650 just scattered outages throughout the state. So we really lucked out on this one as it had the potential to be something much worse."
(Keck) Rivers says nearly all their customers should be back on line by the end of the day. While there have been relatively few power outages, Barbara Farr of Vermont Emergency Management says high water and run-off issues have been pouring in from all over the state.
(Farr) "Oh boy, they’re really scattered all over the state right now. It’s those areas that usually when we get a lot of rain, they typically flood. The Lyndonville area, route 114 and 122 and 5 that intersecrtion. The Mooretown Dam is very high right now."
(Keck) The Otter Creek in Rutland, Lamoille River in Johnson and Jefferson, Passumpsic river in Lyndon and Missisquoi River in North Troy were all trouble areas.
Non essential state employees in Montpelier were sent home early when high water threatened to wash into parking areas. Barbara Farr is urging motorists to be cautious.
(Farr) "We’ve been very lucky not to have any accidents with this storm. Yesterday there were a number of instances of motorists hydro-planing on I-89 and I-91. But today motorists seem to have slowed down quite a bit."
(Keck) Farr says emergency management procedures have gone especially well in part because, just last weekend, the state held a catastrophic emergency drill, which she says provided first responders from all over Vermont a chance to practice.
For VPR News, I’m Nina Keck.