A series of severe thunderstorms Friday afternoon (6/26) affected electrical service in a portion of PP&L, Inc.'s Harrisburg region and in most of its Lancaster region. At the peak, the storms caused about 17,000 PP&L, Inc., customers to lose service.

Most of the damage was caused by heavy lightning, rain and wind, said Robert M.Geneczko, the utility's vice president of Power Delivery. In order to quickly restore power to customers, PP&L, Inc., is moving crews from less-affected areas of its Harrisburg region and from the Lehigh Valley area to support the restoration effort.

"We expect all customers in the Harrisburg region to have electrical service restored by late Friday (6/26), and those in the Lancaster region by sometime Saturday (6/27)," he said.

As of 6 p.m. Friday, 3,000 customers in the Lancaster region were without power.

PP&L, Inc., was monitoring the movement of the storm and had crews ready to move into the area immediately when the damage occurred, Geneczko said. All available crews will be working throughout the night to restore service.

The utility appreciates the inconvenience that loss of electric service causes, he added. "We thank our customers for their patience and understanding."

Geneczko also reminded customers that if they see any downed wires, they should assume they are power lines and that they are energized.

"Customers should stay away from downed wires, alert others to stay away and call the company at its toll-free customer service number, 800-DIAL-PPL (1-800-342-5775)," he said.

Customers who do not have power also should call PP&L, Inc.'s toll-free customer service number to report their service problems.