TNMP has completed restoration of electrical service to all known homes and businesses that can safely accept power in its Gulf Coast service territory. The milestone was achieved just two weeks after Hurricane Ike left an estimated 115,000 TNMP customers without power in Galveston, Brazoria and Matagorda counties.

Bringing power back to the hurricane-ravaged area marked the largest restoration effort in the company's history. The effort involved nearly 700 TNMP and mutual assistance crew members from regional utilities.

"Safely restoring power to nearly 115,000 homes and businesses required an incredible display of teamwork and dedication on the part of TNMP employees and our mutual assistance crews," said Neal Walker, TNMP vice president of Texas operations. "My sincere gratitude goes out to the crews who worked long hours in the midst of dangerous conditions, and to our customers, who exhibited patience and understanding while crews worked diligently to get power back on in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike. We're excited about completing this restoration effort, and getting back to business as usual starting on Sunday."

TNMP estimates less than 1 percent of customers remain without power as of Saturday night due to pending repairs to customer-owned equipment.

TNMP will begin releasing mutual assistance crews on Sunday, and all crews should be released by the end of the coming week. The crews that will remain throughout next week will focus on clean-up type work, such as replacement of temporary poles with permanent structures and repairing of remaining system damage.