Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. crews have been working around the clock since 5 p.m. Saturday (11/11) to restore electric service to about 85,000 customers across eastern and central Pennsylvania left without power by a strong storm.

Most of the outages were caused by high winds, said Robert M. Geneczko, PP&L's vice president for Electrical Systems. All regions of PP&L's 29-county service area were affected by the storm.

"We have every available crew working to get the power back on as quickly as possible," Geneczko said. "Most areas will have power fully restored by Sunday night.

"The Bloomsburg and Shamokin areas were hardest hit by the storm. That's where we have the most work to do. It will be Monday before we can restore service fully in those areas," he added.

PP&L has supplemented its work force with contracted line crews. PP&L and contracted crews have responded to more than 900 instances of power line and transformer problems since Saturday afternoon.

Geneczko said PP&L requested help from other utilities, but no help was available because of the widespread damage left in the storm's wake across the Northeast.

As of 5 p.m. Sunday (11/12), about 6,000 customers remained without power.