Pepco crews have restored power to thousands of customers affected by a winter storm that left a coating of ice on power lines and trees throughout the Washington area.  The majority of customers still without power are expected to be restored late today, but high winds that are forecast this afternoon could cause additional outages and complicate restoration efforts.

All available Pepco personnel and contractors are working as quickly and safely as possible, and additional crews are being brought in as they become available.  Most of the damage is concentrated in southern Prince George's County, where tree limbs and falling trees took down power lines.

At midday, Pepco had a total of about 20,000 customers without power, the vast majority in Prince George's County where falling trees took down high-voltage lines supplying three electric substations.

Customers should stay away from downed lines, treating them as if they are live.  Customers are asked to call Pepco at 1-877-PEPCO-62 to report outages, so that resources can be targeted to the hardest hit areas as quickly as possible.

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Pepco, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: POM), delivers safe, reliable and affordable electric service to more than 745,000 customers in Maryland and the District of Columbia.