Central Vermont Public Service says it could take weeks to restore power to all customers because flooding damaged, destroyed some substations, roads; about 19,000 customers still without power

Rachel Carter

RUTLAND, Vermont , August 30, 2011 (Associated Press) – Some Vermont electric customers could be in the dark for weeks

Vermont's largest electric utility says it could be weeks before all of its customers get their power back.

The Central Vermont Public Service Corp. says that as of Tuesday morning almost 19,000 customers remained without power. At the peak of the storm about 70,000 CVPS customers were without power.

Vermont's other utilities are reporting about 1,200 outages.

The remnants of Irene did more than just drop trees onto power lines.

Some CVPS electric substations were damaged or destroyed by flood waters and power cannot be restored in some areas until roads into the areas have been repaired.

In some areas, entire sections of the utility system will have to be rebuilt.

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