PPL Electric Utilities sent 44 employees to various parts of upstate New York to help the local electric utility there, Niagara Mohawk, restore service to customers who are without power because of ice and wind storms.

The 19 line crews and support personnel come from the western portions of PPL Electric Utilities' service area: Harrisburg, Lancaster, Bloomsburg, Sunbury, Williamsport and Lock Haven.

"Utility companies have a long tradition of helping each other in times of need," said Robert Gombos, vice president-Field Services for PPL Electric Utilities. "After we completed restoring service to our customers who were affected by last night's high winds, we determined that we could support Niagara Mohawk without affecting our ability to meet the service needs of our customers.

"Our crews and support personnel did a great job, working through the night to get power back on as quickly as possible," he added. "It's a further demonstration of their commitment to customer service and satisfaction."

Crews restored service to the 25,000 PPL Electric Utilities customers affected by the wind storm by noon today (2/2). Outages were scattered across the company's 10,000-square-mile service area.

Eight PPL Electric Utilities crews are going to the Syracuse area, seven to the Buffalo area and four to the Utica area. They left Saturday night and are expected to be in upstate New York for several days. As of this evening, Niagara Mohawk reported about 44,000 customers without power because of the ice and wind storm that began Thursday in upstate New York and continued into Friday. Niagara Mohawk, based in Syracuse, provides electric service to about 1.5 million customers.