Vermonters prepped for the worst with Hurricane Sandy approaching, but it looks like the state largely escaped the storm's wrath.

Sandy's wind wasn't as devastating as feared. According to the National Weather Service, gusts in Vermont topped out at 72 miles per hour atop Mount Mansfield, 61 mph near Lyndon Center and 60 mph in Underhill. At its worst point more than 16,000 Vermonters lost power, though that number is now below 10,000 as of this writing, primarily in Rutland, Windham, Windsor and Bennington counties. About six million people in total on the East Coast lost power due to Sandy. As expected, rainfall was not an issue in this storm — most Vermont locations got well below an inch of rain.

Though we woke up to blue skies (and a rainbow) here in Burlington today, Vermont isn't fully out of the woods yet. A wind advisory (downgraded from the previous high wind warning) remains in effect until 5 p.m. today. Wind could gust up to 50 mph, so downed trees and new power outages remain possibilities. What remains of Sandy is still to our southwest and is expected to move north, so showers will linger through the rest of the week.

More Sandy news in Vermont:

• Better safe than sorry: many schools throughout Vermont are closed today.
• A Vermont State Police spokeswoman says the situation appeared "good" in Vermont overnight, according to the Burlington Free Press.
• Some temporary bridges in southern Vermont, still in place after Irene, held up during Sandy, reports the Rutland Herald.
• Also in the Herald: The missing captain of the HMS Bounty, a tall sailing ship that sank during Hurricane Sandy, is a native Vermonter.
• Most flights out of Burlington International Airport are canceled again today, reports WCAX.
• VPR talked with Bennington firefighters about what proved to be Sandy's worst effects: knocking trees down onto power lines.

This is not to say that Sandy was a bust — New York City and New Jersey saw unimaginable damage from storm surge as Sandy made landfall near Atlantic City. See coverage of the storm's effects in the New York Times, the Atlantic Wire and Gothamist. The Oyster Creek nuclear power plant in New Jersey, which local nuclear expert Arnie Gundersen called "the biggest problem" before Sandy on Democracy Now!, declared an "alert" after the storm.

Photo of Richmond on Monday evening by Katherine Kent (@itskaykay on Instagram)