Pine Tree Causes School Closures

November 30, 2011

Express Staff Writer
IRASBURG – A 100-foot pine tree was the cause of a mass power outage that left homes and businesses throughout southern Orleans County in the dark. The tree fell on an electrical transmission line on Sugar House Drive, just south of Irasburg Village, around 5:45 a.m Wednesday morning.
John Morley, Orleans Village Manager, said that Orleans Electric, Barton Electric and the Vermont Electric Corporative own the transmission line. In all, 1,450 VEC members, 700 Orleans Electric Members and 850 Barton Electric members were without power until just before 9 a.m.
Liz Garmache, Manager of Corporate Services for VEC, said the process of restoring the power went smoothly.
The outage meant that children in the Orleans Central Supervisory Union had a day off from school. Patty Rakowsky, from the OCSU office, said that originally the district had a delay, but decided to close the schools because of the prolonged outage. The decision to close was made before the power was restored.