Nearly half the customers in Kentucky who lost power during the weekend snow storm had their electric service restored, according to the latest numbers reported to the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, utilities under the PSC’s jurisdiction were reporting a total of 61,455 customers still without power. That figure, which is down from a peak of about 116,000, does not include municipal utilities.

Kentucky Power Co. (part of the American Electric Power Co. system) reported 51,085 customers without power in 19 counties. More than a third of those – 19,442 - were in Pike County.

Jackson Energy Cooperative had 4,268 customers without power. Kentucky Utilities Co. reported 4,260 customers without power.

In addition to Pike County, counties with substantial outages included Bell (2,035), Breathitt (2.817), Estill (1,000), Floyd (6,767), Harlan (2,060), Johnson (1,001), Knott (4,301), Lawrence (2,043), Leslie (2,898) and Perry (5,343). Kentucky Power reported that it had more than 1,340 workers engaged in restoration efforts, many of them from other companies in the AEP system. The peak number of customers reported without power during the storm increased to 116,000 when Licking Valley Rural Electric Cooperative Corp. informed the PSC that between 8,000 and 9,000 of its customers lost power. It was the first report received from Licking Valley.

Most affected utilities are predicting that nearly all customers would have electric service restored with a day or two. Kentucky power, which had the most extensive outages, was predicting full restoration by Sunday.