Remnants of Debby bring high winds, power outages and downed trees to Vermont

Update 9:30 p.m.:

The remnants of Hurricane Debby hit Vermont with high winds Friday, causing tens of thousands of power outages and making some roads impassable.

As of Friday night, just under 47,000 electric customers were without power, more than half of them serviced by Green Mountain Power.

The winds were stronger than had been forecast, Green Mountain Power wrote on social media. “We will provide restoration times as we can, but right now new damage is coming in. This is a multi-day restoration event.”

The Middlebury Police Department asked all residents to stay off the roads Friday night due to “severe windstorm damage” and noted that Route 116 was completely shut down.

The original article from Friday afternoon is below.

With Debby tracking westward into the Adirondacks, Vermont is now expected to dodge the worst of the storm. But that doesn’t mean that the state is out of the woods.

State officials warned Vermonters to stay vigilant Friday and overnight, as the post-tropical cyclone brings more rain and high winds to an already flood-battered landscape.

“Even though we don’t expect to see as much damage as we once did from this storm, there’s still going to be challenges, especially in the Northeast Kingdom, after many areas saw significant rainfall over the last 30 days,” Gov. Phil Scott said at a Friday morning press conference.

Swift-water rescue teams are already staged across the state, Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison said. Already, state officials have received an emergency declaration from the White House, which will allow the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide the state with additional search and rescue teams and partial reimbursements for emergency expenses.

After a rainy summer — and back-to-back floods in July — public safety officials are particularly concerned about saturated soils and already-high rivers. There have already been sharp rises in the Mad River and Winooski River, Morrison said, and the Passumpsic River reached flood stage early this morning in East Haven.

In Plainfield, town officials told people who live near the Great Brook to evacuate to higher ground ahead of expected waters rising later Friday.

The storm is also expected to bring sustained winds of 20 to 30 mph, with gusts up to 50 mph. That could down trees and power lines, and Morrison said it’s “highly likely” that there could be power outages across the state. There’s also a potential for isolated tornadoes, particularly in southern Vermont.

A tornado watch has been issued for the following areas until 10 p.m. Friday, according to the National Weather Service:

• Essex County, New York
• Addison County
• Bennington County
• Rutland County
• Windham County
• Windsor County

“Stay safe, Vermont. While Debby is not packing as big a punch as we anticipated, it will impact us. There will be damage. There will be various types of flooding. It will be a challenging next 18 hours,” Morrison said.

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