PP&L, Inc., crews worked throughout the night Sunday (5/31) and Monday morning (6/1) on outages throughout the company's service area.

The extensive damage to PP&L, Inc.'s equipment from the severe storms that struck the service area means crews will be working for the next two to three days to restore service to affected customers.

The company currently has 55,000 customers without power, with the hardest hit areas being in northeastern and central Pennsylvania. The total number of customers affected by these storms at any one time was 119,000.

"We want to let our customers know that as always, we are tackling these outages with all the manpower and equipment we can muster," said Robert M. Geneczko, vice president for Power Delivery for PP&L, Inc. "These particular storms were strong and caused extensive damage to our system."

Utilities have a mutual aid agreement to assist each other when such catastrophic events occur. However, Geneczko noted, utilities surrounding PP&L, Inc., experienced the same severe storms and suffered damage that precludes them from releasing crews to help PP&L, Inc.

But Geneczko vowed the company would continue to search for any available manpower to deal with the outages resulting from the recent storms.

"We will continue to update customers on our ongoing storm restoration efforts," Geneczko said.

Customers may see a downed wire as a result of the storms. They should assume it is a power line, and that it is energized. They should stay away from it, tell others to stay away and notify PP&L, Inc. by calling 1-800-DIAL-PPL(1-800-342-5775).