Normally when a severe storm hits Vermont, strong winds knock down thousands of trees or ice coats power lines. In August, however, Mother Nature drenched the top of the mountains with nonstop rainfall. The soil became saturated quickly, and the water then began roaring down the mountain and into the valleys below.

Central Vermont Public Service (CVPS) was preparing for heavy winds and some rainfall from the remnants of Hurricane Irene, but the utility's system didn't sustain the kinds of tree damage common in ice and heavy snow storms. Instead, the flood washed away significant sections of the utility's system. Fast-moving water carried away about 400 poles, crumbled dozens of bridges and flooded more than 260 roads. In addition, the flood destroyed or heavily damaged more than 700 homes, wiped out a substation and damaged the utility's hydro facilities. In some cases, roads completely disappeared overnight, making access nearly impossible for field crews.

Because CVPS hadn't dealt with a rain event of this magnitude in decades, it impacted the utility's ability to restore service. Fortunately, the utility planned ahead. As soon as the weather reports came rolling in, CVPS called out twice as many crews as it has had for any other storm, and it secured off-road vehicles to access the damaged equipment.

High Alert

Before the first raindrop fell, the central scheduling office was already calling in line crews and setting them up in nearby hotels. Given that the entire East Coast was on alert, CVPS called utilities from Texas, Mississippi, Kansas, Illinois, Ontario and Tennessee to request their assistance with the pending storm.

CVPS was on high alert five days before the hurricane roared up the coast. The company turned to not only the National Weather Service but also a private service that has a good record of predicting severe weather. The storm didn't hit the state until Sunday, but CVPS already had hundreds of line workers in place and ready to spring into action by Saturday.

About 700 line workers and other field workers from mutual aid contractors traveled to Vermont to help CVPS. Other utility companies and power contractors from the northern and western parts of Vermont — which was minimally affected by the flood — provided assistance.

Throughout the storm, the workers maintained a clear focus on safety. Every contractor who worked with CVPS attended an hour-long safety briefing to learn about safety procedures. For example, the utility requires all of its line workers to wear rubber gloves when working on downed lines and use Extendo Sticks when de-energizing to the ground. CVPS provided the contract crews with all of the materials to work safely on its system.

For those companies that had never before worked with CVPS, the utility teamed up the outside crews with internal resources. That way, they could answer questions about the system.

Crew Coordination

CVPS called upon outside companies as well as on its own pre-assembled internal teams. As part of its emergency management plan, CVPS's office employees were already divided into groups that were responsible for different roles, such as setting up hotels, ordering food and securing supplies. All the field crews were sent out to the field, while nonfield personnel shifted their focus to setting up accommodations for the out-of-town line workers.

The company used a program called Resources on-Demand from Macrosoft to line up rooms, keep track of meals and manage the field workforce. Since Vermont is mainly a rural state, however, CVPS sometimes had to house the workers at bed and breakfasts, which typically aren't used to house line workers with gargantuan trucks and heavy equipment.

The office workers pulled together to ensure that every line worker had accommodations during the severe storm event. Because the floodwater washed out so many roads, some of the CVPS line workers even spent Sunday night at the company's central operating offices.

Safety First

The utility activated all of the crews in advance because it knew the storm was coming. By 8 a.m. on Sunday, Aug. 28, the state first began to experience outages as a result of the rainfall, but since the state didn't have any widespread history of damage due to rain since the 1930s, CVPS was bracing itself for hurricane-force winds. The company activated its line workers in about an hour before the storm hit, and as the rain continued to fall, CVPS fielded calls from customers about outages.

The problem, however, was that it continued to rain, and rain, and rain. As the storm evolved into the morning hours, a lot of the line workers were calling the central office and expressing the dangers of working on the restoration.

For example, one crew traveled across a bridge to patrol a line, but as the floodwater continued to rise, it became too dangerous to continue working. Rather than putting his crew in harm's way, Dave Miller, the operations supervisor, instructed his line workers to pull back, sit tight and wait until it stopped raining to resume work. Shortly thereafter, the bridge disappeared. Following the flood, CVPS crews hailed Miller, a 40-year industry veteran, as a hero for making a decision that probably saved the lives of line workers.

Miller then called the central operating office, which quickly called in the employees from all the different districts. CVPS pulled resources for a good portion of the day on Sunday. Once it became dark, the utility was nervous about sending line workers out to work and having them washed away while it was dark outside.

Damage Assessment

After the rain stopped falling, CVPS was able to begin assessing the damage. The only storm that CVPS could compare the recent flood to was the Great Flood of 1927, which caused millions of dollars of damage to Vermont. Of course, at that time, the current electrical distribution system didn't exist like it does today, nor were bridges built in the same manner they are today. Vermont has many bridges still standing that were built following the Great Flood of 1927.

The company used fixed wing aircraft and a helicopter to get a better view of the destruction from above. The pilots flew near the major transmission and major distribution lines to take photos.

The floodwater washed houses right off their foundations, and rivers overflowed onto roads, wiping their existence off the map. Because the CVPS line workers built power lines so close to the road, half-mile spans of line disappeared overnight, with no evidence that they had ever been there in the first place.

Most of the damage to the transmission and distribution system occurred near the base of the Green Mountains. As the rainwater barreled downhill, it clogged up the big rivers, which then overflowed on to the adjacent land.

About 99% of the poles in Vermont's transmission and distribution system are made of wood, and these poles couldn't withstand the force of the floodwater. The flood didn't knock down just one pole here or there, rather, it would take down clusters of poles in the water's new path.

Clearing a Right-of-Way

In many cases, where the road was gone, the field crews didn't know where the original poles were located. As a result, it was challenging for the line workers to replace the poles without clearing trees.

The state of Vermont is about 80% forest, and as a result, the company's line workers frequently don't have access to open fields to install new lines. The utility couldn't leave thousands of customers without power, however, so the company approached the state, which allowed the workers to cut new paths through the trees to set new poles.

Oftentimes, CVPS receives pushback from customers just during routine tree trimming. Because so many customers were without power, however, the community agreed to the tree clearing to ensure a more rapid restoration without complaint. The utility called upon its nationally recognized forestry group with five certified arborists as well as its contractors such as Trees Inc. and Asplundh Tree Experts to cut new rights-of-way.

In some cases, the utility lost a half-mile to a mile of line, so the right-of-way crews staked new routes. Now they plan to move the line as the roads are rebuilt to bring them back closer to the roadside. The utility's first goal, however, was to get service restored in the isolated areas and focus on safety.

Remote Access

After contractors cleared new rights-of-way, the crews installed the new poles in the rugged terrain. Simply accessing the remote areas, however, was a major challenge for the crews. The line workers relied on all-terrain vehicles, four-wheelers and track vehicles. The company used a variety of equipment such as Argo, which makes off-road track carriers. The utility also relied on two-person vehicles such as Yamaha Rhinos and Polaris Rangers as well as four-wheelers from Bombardier and Honda.

In addition to using the off-road equipment, one of the workers also had an unusual way to access the damaged equipment. The workers couldn't travel on a particular road due to a 50-ft drop caused by the flood. A CVPS supervisor, who is an avid motocross rider, brought his bike to access a transmission loop, which feeds through two areas of the state that were damaged by the flood. He was able to get through the cross country area, isolate the problem on the transmission system and provide an assessment of the problems to get the line sectionalized. He was also able to get photographs of a damaged substation, which allowed repairs to be planned long before roads would allow access to the site.

Some of the employees also hiked into some towns. For example, Greg White, a chief engineer for the company, hiked 5 miles over a mountain pass to get a firsthand look at the condition of a substation in Rochester, Vermont. When he arrived, he was shocked by what he saw. The substation, which served 1,200 customers, was obliterated by the flood. The dirt and soil washed away around the substation, the concrete padding disintegrated, and the electrical equipment was severely damaged. In addition, the fence was completely washed away, and the substation was sitting in 6 ft of water.

The field crews had to bring in a portable substation on a tractor-trailer to power that town as well as two communities north of it. Two days after the storm, the line workers brought the substation to the community to provide power to the area residents.

Some employees like meter readers also used mountain bikes to get into remote parts of southern Vermont. In several places, the roads turned into piles of rocks, and with the floodwater rushing over them, they looked just like streams.

With so many roads washed out, moving into the most affected areas was difficult, if not nearly impossible. CVPS had to do some unique things to get access to its customers. Many of the major highways were closed, yet the field crews had to find a way to move crews and material east and west through the state. Route 4, the largest east-west corridor in central and southern Vermont, was completely wiped out, and it was impossible for anyone to travel on this road from Sunday afternoon through early Tuesday.

Because the state was busy with hundreds of washouts, CVPS agreed to hire its own contractor to help create a temporary emergency bypass to Route 4 so line crews could get into isolated towns. At one point in time, 13 towns in Vermont had no roads in or out.

The state and the utility worked together to gain access to the damaged areas, often by working with a variety of town road crews.

Rebuilding for the Future

By Tuesday morning, CVPS and other companies were able to move utility trucks into a lot of towns that had been completely isolated due to the flood. The line workers were able to access towns such as Bridgewater and Pittsfield, Vermont, and assess damage.

Many of the towns that were isolated tried to dig their way out from each side. For example, Rochester and Bethel, Vermont, have a mountain road that passes between them. The townspeople from both communities worked on both of their ends to meet in the middle. The towns, utilities and contractors worked together to help those in need.

Anyone with a large piece of equipment such as a dump truck or bulldozer showed up to fill in washouts and make the routes passable. For example, in Rochester, an 18-year-old who was learning his family's farming business helped utility workers gain access to his isolated community. Three days after the storm hit, CVPS and contract crews were able to go in with a convoy of 40 vehicles. When they drove through the town, they received standing ovations from the crowd. This was a common occurrence throughout the storm.

The operations supervisors and employees even attended town meetings to provide updates on what was going on with the electric system. In towns where there was no food coming in or out, the townspeople shared what little they had with the workers in the field.

CVPS expects that the cleanup effort could take months, if not years, as they need to move lines closer to new roads, and make more permanent repairs. By working with other utilities, CVPS was able to restore power to its customers and help them to rebuild for the future.

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Scott Massie (smassie@cvps.com) is the manager of central scheduling for Central Vermont Public Service. He has been with the company for 23 years. He worked as a line worker for 10 years for the company before moving to the scheduling department. He works out of Rutland, Vermont.

Steve Costello (scostel@cvps.com) is in public affairs for Central Vermont Public Service. He has been with the company for 16 years and has spent a lot of time in the field. He has lived in Vermont his entire life and has never seen anything like this flood in terms of the storm damage to the infrastructure, roads, bridges and utility equipment.

Companies mentioned:

Asplundh Tree Expert Co. www.asplundh.com

Bombardier Recreational Products corp.brp.com

Burlington Electric www.burlingtonelectric.com

Central Vermont Public Service www.cvps.com

Green Mountain Power www.greenmountainpower.com

Honda www.honda.com

Johnson Electric www.johnsonelectric.com

Polaris www.polarisindustries.com

Macrosoft www.macrosoft.com

Trees Inc. www.treesinc.com

Vermont Electric Cooperative www.vermontelectric.coop

Yamaha www.yamaha.com