PEARL RIVER --- O&R has restored power to 40 percent of its 240,000 customers who lost service as a result of the widespread devastation caused by Hurricane Sandy.

About 80 percent of O&R’s 300,000-customer base lost power in the hurricane that ripped down miles of wire, toppled thousands of trees and snapped hundreds of poles. O&R sustained damage at 10,000 separate locations resulting from severe storm damage.

Work continues around the clock to return power to the approximately 140,000 O&R customers who remain without service. Tens of thousands of customers each day are expected to get their power back on until everyone returns to service. O&R works in a prioritized manner to address wires down, critical infrastructure and to get the largest groups of customers back in service first.

The vast majority of our customers should have their electricity back on over the next week. O&R has set November 11 as the estimated date by which 90 percent of its customers’ service should be restored. Next week, O&R will be posting more location- specific estimates of when power will be restored to neighborhood and individuals.

Currently, more than 1,000 O&R employees and over 1,400 contractors, including 160 National Guard troops due to arrive tonight, are working to restore power. The numbers of outages by county are:

Rockland: 52,700
Orange: 35,400
Bergen: 38,900
Passaic: 9,800
Sullivan: 5,600
Pike: 1,000
Sussex: 200