More than 373,000 US customers without power due to extreme weather

WASHINGTON - More than 373,000 homes and businesses were without power as at July 6 due to extreme weather conditions across several areas of the United States, according to data from PowerOutage.us.

Pennsylvania was the hardest hit, with over 70,000 outages, according to the data.

The utility with the most outages was FirstEnergy, where around 59,775 homes and businesses were without service, followed by DTE Energy, with 55,850 customers without power.

DTE Energy said on its website early on July 6 that its Storm Response Team was on track to restore 95 per cent of impacted customers by the end of the day. As at 5.29pm EDT (5.29am Singapore time), the company had 97.5 per cent of its customers with power.

Michigan had the second-highest number of outages by state, with about 64,155 customers without power.

PPL Electric Utilities in Pennsylvania had around 51,012 customers without power, which is about 2.6 per cent of its customers in the state.

FirstEnergy said its Jersey Central Power & Light unit restored power to over 300,000 customers after the storms. It added that the remaining 40,000 outages were expected to be restored by July 7.

Con Edison said the cities of Yonkers, Mount Vernon, Rye and New Rochelle in Westchester County, which is north of New York City, experienced the greatest number of storm-related outages, and that 95 per cent of its Westchester customers affected by the July 4 storms were expected to be restored by July 6 at 7pm EDT. REUTERS