James M. Jeffords: “winter is only half over, and even though there has been some stormy weather here in the Nation's Capital, sections of…”

“winter is only half over, and even though there has been some stormy weather here in the Nation's Capital, sections of the Northeast experienced the ice storm of the century, maybe the millennium, earlier this month. For 2 days straight, freezing rain, snow and sleet battered the Champlain Valley of Vermont, upstate New York and parts of New Hampshire, Maine and the Province of Quebec. Tens of thousands of trees buckled and shattered under the stress and weight of several inches of ice that coated their branches. Power lines were ripped down by falling branches and the weight of the ice, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without electricity for days and even weeks. In fact, some are still without electricity. Roads were covered with ice and rivers swelled and overflowed with heavy rain. The crippling ice storm brought activity in the area to a grinding halt. Just a few days after the storm, Senator Leahy and I visited the hardest hit areas of Vermont. The storm's damages were the worst I have ever seen.”