WMECo: All power should be restored by Weds. night

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) - Several thousand utility customers in western Massachusetts remain without power, more than a day after the start of the heaviest winds from Hurricane Sandy.

A total of about 40,000 Western Massachusetts Electric Company customers lost power at one point during the storm, and while most outages were short-lived, power problems have persisted for those living in the Hilltowns and the Berkshires. As of 3:45 P.M., just over 8,000 WMECo customers remained without power, most of them in western Hampden and Hampshire County, and in Berkshire County.

According to a news release sent to 22News by WMECo, they are sending out additional crews to the hardest-hit areas, and hope to have all of the scattered outages in the Hadley and Greenfield areas taken care of by 11:00 Tuesday night. The restoration effort will take longer in the Berkshires, where they are estimating full restoration by Wednesday evening.

Meanwhile, National Grid continues to try to restore its customers in western Massachusetts. More than 6,000 customers remained out in Berkshire, Hampden, Hampshire, and Franklin Counties as of Tuesday afternoon. A majority of those customers are in Berkshire County. There is no estimate at this time on when those outages will be fixed.

You can track power outages in real time on the websites of   WMECo ( WMECo mobile site )and National Grid. .