While some communities hit by weekend floods, ice jams, and power outages returned to normal by Monday, others braced for a one-two-punch from the weather. As temperatures dropped and ice re-froze on limbs and lines, the town of Barton, in the Northeast Kingdom, struggled to make progress.
Orleans County was hard hit. Along Route 5, many trees were weighed down by ice that also downed power lines. In and around Barton, which has its own small electric company, a crew of five men has been working 24-7 to help about 2,200 customers get their power back. But as of Monday afternoon, 1,100 households were still waiting. The Village office was swamped with calls and visits from people wondering when their lights and heat would go back on.
Village Supervisor Brian Hanson worked outdoors with the utility crews, although he is not a lineman.
“We’ve got calls into other municipalities, as soon as they have crews freed up for help, but we’re working. I mean my crew worked from 5:30 yesterday morning till eleven last night. We went home to get some sleep and we were back at it at seven this morning and we’ll probably keep on doing that right straight through till we get them back,” Hanson said.
In the basement of the village hall the town set up a shelter with cots, where about 18 people took refuge, sharing food brought or cooked on site by fellow villagers.
Sandra Bell serves on the auxiliary for the fire department. She said people have weathered this crisis with a lot of community sprit.
“You know, nobody can cook, there’s no heat, so we’re like, let’s gather at the firehouse, lets gather at the Municipal Building to figure out something to eat. We were gathering friends, we were trying to find people who were willing to help out in any way that they could,” Bell said.
Teresa Curran, an Italian immigrant, got some of that help. She lives far from neighbors, and was glad to see someone show up at her door when her electric heat went cold.
“And the guy that picked me up, he works for the fire company here in Barton and he say ‘I know where Teresa lives.’ They came and picked me up and they brought me here and it’s nice and warm. Now I got everything done,” she said.
She had just heard that her heat is back on, but just to make sure it doesn’t go off again she spent Monday night at the shelter.
Red Cross shelters also remained open in Newport and Enosburgh Falls, in the face of weather forecasts for frigid temperatures overnight.
