Strong winds caused trees to fall, damaging power lines from Ohio to New York on Wednesday night, leaving more than 600,000 customers without electricity on Thursday afternoon, utility companies said. Ohio utilities were hit hardest, and most of those without power are expected to be restored by Friday. Utilities were also affected in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Maryland, Virginia and Indiana. American Electric Power Corporation's AEP-Ohio reported by Thursday 167,500 customers without service. First Energy, which serves Ohio, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, said 165,000 customers were without power, down from a peak of 390,000 in Ohio and Pennsylvania after Wednesday's hardest hit. Allegheny Power said it had 147,000 customers without power in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland and Virginia. First Energy spokesman Chris Eck said the bulk of customers affected would have power restored by Friday. The biggest chunk of the AEP outages in Ohio are in and around Columbus, the state's capital and its biggest city.
