High winds accompanying a storm front that passed through central and eastern Pennsylvania Friday (1/19) have caused scattered power outages across the 29-county area served by Pennsylvania Power & Light Co.

As of 3 p.m., about 11,000 PP&L customers were without electricity, mainly because of wind-related damage to power lines and electrical equipment. About 7,000 of those customers are in PP&L's Northeast region, which includes the Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton areas.

"PP&L line crews are responding to outage calls as quickly as possible," said Robert M. Geneczko, PP&L's vice president for Electrical Systems. "The storm should be out of our area by tonight, and we expect to have storm damages fully repaired by 9 p.m."

The storm caused power outages for PP&L customers in central Pennsylvania as it moved through that region Friday morning.

Since midnight, PP&L has restored power to about 18,000 customers across its service area.

"High winds can bring down power lines," Geneczko noted. "If you see a downed power line or damaged pole, please stay away, even if it looks like the line is dead. Call PP&L immediately and we will send someone out as quickly as possible to take care of the problem."

PP&L has a toll-free number, available 24 hours a day, that can be used to report power outages and other problems. The number is 1- 800-342-5775 (1-800 DIAL PPL).

PP&L serves 1.2 million customers in 29 counties of eastern and central Pennsylvania.