AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- FirstEnergy (NYSE: [ FE ]) employees and outside utility and contractor crews continue working around the clock in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania to restore customers affected by Hurricane Irene. With flooding now subsiding, company personnel are making repairs in previously inaccessible areas, particularly in northern New Jersey.

Most of the remaining 26,000 Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) customers should be restored by Saturday, with small groups of customers in some of the areas that experienced severe flooding being restored by late Sunday.

For Metropolitan Edison (Met-Ed), the remaining 4,000 customers should be restored by Sunday. Some of the hardest hit areas include: Dingmans, Stroudsburg, Lebanon, Kutztown, Hamburg, Bushkill and Marshall's Creek.

All totaled, Hurricane Irene affected 920,000 FirstEnergy utility customers, including its Pennsylvania Electric Company (Penelec) and Potomac Edison companies. With outage restoration work completed, crews from those companies have joined personnel from other FirstEnergy utilities – Ohio Edison, Mon Power, Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, Toledo Edison, Pennsylvania Power, and West Penn Power – to continue the steady restoration progress being made in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Overall, more than 4,500 FirstEnergy employees – including line workers, damage assessors, hazard responders, call center representatives and forestry crews – have been working around the clock to restore power to customers affected by Hurricane Irene.

In addition, more than 400 line workers from outside utilities and contractors are working with FirstEnergy crews in New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania now that they have completed restoration work in other states affected by Hurricane Irene.

For updated information on hurricane restoration news, current outages, FirstEnergy's storm restoration process and tips for staying safe after a storm, go to [ www.firstenergycorp.com. ]

JCP&L serves 1.1 million customers in 13 New Jersey counties, and Met-Ed serves 560,000 customers in 13 Pennsylvania counties. Other FirstEnergy utilities impacted by Hurricane Irene include Penelec, which serves 600,000 customers in 31 Pennsylvania counties, and Potomac Edison, which serves approximately 250,000 customers in seven Maryland counties and 135,000 customers in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies comprise the nation's largest investor-owned electric system. Its diverse generating fleet features non-emitting nuclear, scrubbed baseload coal, natural gas, and pumped-storage hydro and other renewables, and has a total generating capacity of approximately 23,000 megawatts.

SOURCE FirstEnergy Corp.

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