A severe thunderstorm knocked down trees and power lines in northeastern Vermont at midday Tuesday, injuring about a dozen people at a Buddhist retreat and moving a sheriff’s cruiser about 40 feet, officials said.
There were some reports that a tornado touched down in Barnet and meteorologists from the National Weather Service office in Burlington were in the area Tuesday trying to determine if that’s what caused the damage or if it was just a severe thunderstorm, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Eric Evenson.
“It was definitely a very intense storm that was very prolific in producing severe damage,” Evenson said.
The intense portion of the storm lasted about 20 minutes and most damage was reported near the intersection of U.S. Route 5 and West Barnet Road.
There were trees reported down in Barnet, Ryegate and Peacham.
“It was producing severe weather around the Littleton, New Hampshire, area,” Evenson said. “I believe that storm went all the way into Maine.”
The storm knocked out power to about 2,000 customers in the Barnet-Ryegate area, said Dotty Schnure, a spokeswoman for Green Mountain Power.
The storm knocked out two transmission lines serving each community. The utility rerouted power into Ryegate by about 3 p.m. and line crews are now working to restore the line serving Barnet.
At 6 p.m. 1,000 customers were still without power in Barnet.
GMP hopes to have the line serving Barnet repaired by 9 p.m. and then crews can start restoring service to individual homes, Schnure said.
It’s unclear when all customers will get their power back, Schnure said.
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