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Con Ed Says 'Vast Majority' Will Have Power Restored By Next Weekend, Nov. 10-11

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - The effort to restore power to those impacted by megastorm Sandy will apparently take longer than initially hoped.

Con Edison said Thursday that it expects to "restore the vast majority of customers who lost power by the weekend of Nov. 10 and 11. The remaining customer restorations could take an additional week more."

As a reminder, a Con Ed "customer" is not necessarily an individual - it can be an entire building.

Con Ed revealed the expected timeline "based on an assessment of the unprecedented damage caused by Hurricane Sandy."

That said, Con Ed said it anticipated having power restored to customers in Lower Manhattan by Saturday.

Con Ed said some 900,000 customers lost power due to the storm in New York City and Westchester County.  Some 250,000 customers have had power restored, with roughly 650,000 to go.

"We made significant progress in getting power restored to our customers," Con Ed spokesman Allan Drury told 1010 WINS. "This was a massive storm."

Con Ed explained that their crews have been pumping massive amounts of water from their underground systems. Once the water is pumped out, the equipment has to be inspected, dried, repaired or replaced.

Downed overhead wires also are proving a significant challenge. More than 100,000 power lines were knocked down, the utility said.

The company said it is "marshalling resources from near and far to conduct the largest customer restoration in its history."

Anyone who wants to report a downed power line, outage, or check service status can call 1-800-752-6633, or log on to the company's website. For instructions on how to report an outage, click here. For a complete guide to outages in the Tri-State Area including other utility companies, click here.

The company urged people not to go near downed power lines or to try or move or touch them. If a line falls on your car while you're in it, stay in the car and await help.

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