Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. crews are working around the clock to restore service to customers after a line of severe thunderstorms moved through the region Sunday night (4/9), cutting power to about 35,000 customers.

Lancaster County received the brunt of the storms. Winds measured at up to 80 miles an hour snapped poles and power lines. Service was interrupted to more than 20,000 customers.

The most serious damage occurred near Marietta. The hurricane-force winds knocked down more than 40 poles, causing a two-mile section of major regional power supply line to fall to the ground.

"PP&L crews will be working around the clock to rebuild that section of the power line. The damage is so severe, however, that it could take all week to complete the job," said Larry Downing, PP&L's Lancaster community development director.

PP&L is bringing in portable generators to help restore service to as many people as possible. However, the company has notified some customers served by the downed power line that they may be without electric power for an extended period of time, Downing said.

"We understand the tremendous inconvenience to customers and we appreciate their patience and understanding," he said. "We are doing all we can to restore electric service to as many people as possible as quickly as possible."

Line crews from around the company's 29-county service area have been sent to Lancaster to help with the storm recovery. The company also sent damage assessors and support personnel from its Allentown headquarters.

In addition to the 20,000 people without power in Lancaster County, the high winds knocked out service to about 9,500 customers in the Harrisburg area and caused scattered outages in other parts of PP&L's service area.

By noon Monday (4/10), PP&L had restored power to about 28,000 customers. About 7,000 remained without electricity — essentially all of them in Lancaster County.