By Reuters

Published: Tuesday, November 6, 2012, 8:54 p.m.
Updated: Tuesday, November 6, 2012

NEW YORK — Homes and businesses along the East Coast continued to face power outages on Tuesday caused by damage from Sandy, but the number of outages had dropped below 1 million for the first time since the storm hit more than a week ago.

Sandy's wind and storm surge toppled power lines and flooded areas that held generating equipment, knocking power out to more than 8 million at its peak.

About 930,000 homes and businesses remained without power as of Tuesday afternoon, the Department of Energy said in a report.

Nearly 350,000 customers in New York had no power as of 2 p.m. on Tuesday, government data showed, after peak outages of 2 million.

New Jersey remained the hardest-hit state, with more than a half million homes and businesses with no power, down from a peak of 2.6 million.

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, the largest electric utility by customer base in New Jersey, said on Tuesday that 226,900 customers remained without power, down from a peak of 1.7 million. The company expects to have power restored to those customers by Friday, a spokeswoman said.

New York power company Consolidated Edison said it had 107,000 customers without electricity, out of 990,000 affected by the superstorm. About 20,000 of those customers cannot be reconnected to system until their electrical equipment is inspected, said John Miksad, senior vice president of electric operations for Con Ed.

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