Day four of the storm: some progress, continued woe

Today is the fourth day of this season's first major storm.  There are signs of progress, but also problems persisting.

Tree branches and entire trees sag under the weight of ice and snow.  Sometimes they fall, toppling lines, or leaning heavily on the cables.  For example, here's a tree down on a line a few yards from the Lucky 7 spring:

Here's what it looks like from underneath:

Do not do this.

Sometimes it takes several days for these trees and tree limbs to fall.  Green Mountain Power crews seem to be revisiting the same areas, as new problems hit ones previously repaired.

As of this writing, 8 separate problems currently knock 293 Riptonites offline.  Nearby, 20 problems keep 84 Middlebury homes in the dark, while 46 problems block 233 Lincoln households from the electrical grid and 9 incidents do the same for 159 in Leicester.

Elsewhere, more than 10,000 Vermont customers remain without power, as of this writing.

Green Mountain Power now says damage is comparable to what we endured during Tropical Storm Irene.  And things could take through Sunday night to resolve.

Please take care, friends and neighbors.  Stay warm and safe.

On a personal note, I'll update this blog as I can, until the crisis is over.  There's neither electricity nor phone at my house, so I've been writing these posts from whichever town I can get to.