updated
Thu, Sep 1, 2011 12:04 PM
Amazing progress made, more expected
today
Isolated towns reached; power restored to
many
Less than 5,900 without power, but much hard work
remains
Central Vermont Public Service crews made extraordinary progress
Wednesday, and less than 5,900 customer outages are left to
restore.
"We made amazing progress yesterday, and we expect to make more
great progress today. This is an extraordinary effort, and the
system has come together much quicker than I think any of us
expected," said Joe Kraus, senior vice president of engineering,
operations and customer service. "We know much hard work remains,
as we're going into areas we've hardly seen yet due to closed
roads, but we are prepared to do whatever it takes to wrap this up
as soon as we can. Much of it will be done by this weekend."
As of 7 a.m., more than 67,000 of the 73,000-plus customer outages
have been restored. Outages remain in Windsor, Windham and Orange
counties. Rutland County customers who can take service were
restored Wednesday night. CVPS continued to caution that complete
restoration remains dependent on road access.
Many customers throughout the state also have flooding damage to
their homes. If a customer's home or business was flooded, and
their electric service panel was affected by water, it has to be
examined by a qualified electrician before CVPS can restore
service.
Power was restored to Killington, Mt. Holly, Shrewsbury and Mendon
Wednesday evening.
In Rutland City, CVPS workers continued work with inspectors to
look at electrical panels with electricians in the Baxter,
Cleveland, School and Meadow street areas.
Crews made great progress in Northfield, Roxbury, Stockbridge and
Pittsfield last night, and hope to wrap up most of the remaining
work in those areas today. Dozens of poles had to be set, and many
lines were rerouted or built in new places to restore power to
customers. Some customers in that area are still inaccessible due
to road washouts.
A portable substation was delivered to Rochester last night to
restore power to residents more quickly while crews work to rebuild
the Rochester Substation, the heart of the local grid. The portable
sub should be energized today, and many Rochester, Hancock and
Granville customers should be restored today, barring any
unforeseen problems.
Power was restored to most of Chester, Landgrove, Grafton and much
of Weston last night. Crews have numerous poles left to set in the
Cavendish area. Crews hope to have the majority of customers in
those areas back on by Friday or Saturday.
Crews in Windham County continued work to build a new 1,000-foot
temporary line to get power to East Dover village, which they hope
to complete today.
Crews are bringing seven buckets, three diggers, and several track
vehicles to the Wardsboro and Jamaica areas today to work to
restore service to the 880 customers who have been isolated and
without power since Hurricane Irene hit. They have fives poles to
set, crossarms and lines to put up, and materials ready to
go.
Access to the Wardsboro and Jamaica area on Route 100 between
Route 30 and Wardsboro village was cut off until yesterday. Tree
workers were in the area yesterday to clear trees in anticipation
of line crews moving in today. Again, many local roads remain
inaccessible to utility crews.
Crews will be moving into the South Newfane area today with
all-terrain vehicles and four-wheelers, but access via bucket truck
is not yet available, and crews will be looking for ways to get
trucks into that area. A three-phase line was downed in that area
during the storm, and crews report a house is in the road where the
road used to be.
Collaboration with local and state Agency of Transportation
officials continues, as many roads continue to open up to emergency
and utility vehicles.
Crews and support staff have been working 18- and 20-hour shifts
since before the storm began, and will continue to do so until the
restoration work is done.
CVPS urged Vermonters to use extra caution around waterways, many
of which are still flowing at very high levels.
Up-to-date outage numbers (by town) can be found at:
http://www.cvps.com/CustomerService/outages/ and
http://vtoutages.com/
Tagged:
power, CVPS
