High winds that moved through Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, Feb. 11 and 12, interrupted electric service to approximately 390,000 customers of FirstEnergy Corp.'s Ohio Edison, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (CEI) and Toledo Edison subsidiaries in Ohio; Pennsylvania Power (Penn Power), Pennsylvania Electric (Penelec) and Metropolitan Edison (Met-Ed) subsidiaries in Pennsylvania, and Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) in New Jersey. The high winds caused downed branches, trees and power lines throughout the region. Due to the extent of the damage, complete power restoration may extend into the weekend in some areas.

The hardest hit areas are around the cities of Ashtabula, Kinsman, Salem and Warren in Ohio, and around Altoona, Cranberry, Erie and Mercer in Pennsylvania. As of 10 a.m. Thursday, a total of approximately 165,000 customers remain out of service. By utility operating company, the outages and numbers restored are as follows:

• Ohio Edison - 41,000 customers without service; restoration complete to  111,000 
• CEI - 50,000 customers without service; restoration complete to 18,000 
• Toledo Edison - 2,800 customers without service; restoration complete  to 16,800 
• Penn Power - 9,000 customers without service; restoration complete to  18,500 
• Penelec - 49,000 customers without service; restoration complete to  48,000 
• Met-Ed - 7,300 customers without service; restoration complete to 2,400 
• JCP&L - 6,000 customers without service; restoration complete to 11,000

While crews have already restored power to more than half of the customers affected, downed poles and wires still need repair in hundreds of locations. In addition, FirstEnergy utility customers may be affected by high winds that remain in parts of the company's service areas.