About 75 Pennsylvania Power & Light Co. employees left Monday morning (9/9) for Wilmington, N.C., to help residents there recover from the devastation of Hurricane Fran.

Thirty, two-person line crews and about 15 support staff members from across PP&L's service area are headed to parts of eastern North Carolina hardest hit by Fran. Nearly 250,000 people in eastern North Carolina are without electric service because of the hurricane.

"We received a call for help from Carolina Power & Light Co. over the weekend, and because storm damage in central eastern Pennsylvania was not significant, we were able to send much-needed help to the Carolinas," said Robert M. Geneczko, PP&L vice president- Electrical Systems.

Service was restored to about 14,000 PP&L customers over the weekend using PP&L crews. The company is keeping enough workers behind to handle any power outages that may occur locally.

The PP&L crews are expected to arrive in North Carolina tonight and return to Pennsylvania this weekend.