PP&L, Inc., line crews are clearing up the last of the power outages caused by heavy thunderstorms that swept across central Pennsylvania Tuesday night (6/16).

As of 4 p.m. Wednesday (6/17), PP&L, Inc., had restored service to more than 37,000 customers. Since Tuesday evening, PP&L, Inc., crews have responded to more than 500 cases of problems with power lines or electrical equipment caused by the storms.

"Our crews responded quickly to customer calls, and we were able to move crews from areas with little storm damage into places where their help was needed," said Robert M. Geneczko, vice president of Power Delivery for PP&L, Inc.

The hardest hit areas were along a line running northeast from Harrisburg to Bloomsburg, including Newport, Elizabethville, Sunbury and Frackville. PP&L crews from the Lehigh Valley, the Poconos, the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre area and the Lancaster area were sent to those areas to help with the restoration effort.

About 1,000 PP&L, Inc., customers remained without power late Wednesday afternoon, primarily in rural areas north of Harrisburg. The company expects most of those customers will have their power back on by midnight. A few in more remote areas may be without power until Thursday morning (6/18).

All available crews are working to restore power as quickly as possible, Geneczko noted.

"We want to thank our customers for their patience," he said. "We have had several damaging storms move through Pennsylvania in recent weeks."