By 9 p.m. Monday, all but 50 Pennsylvania Power Co. customers, mainly in Clark and South Pymatuning Township, had their electricity restored.

Remaining customers' power was expected to be restored by daybreak today, said Randy Coleman, area manager for Penn Power. At the height of Sunday's fierce storm that spawned a tornado, 4,600 customers were without power.

But Coleman noted there will be a number of cases in heavily damaged areas or where homes were destroyed that may be without power for quite some time. "These homes were hit so bad there's nothing to restore power to,'' he said.

Owned by Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., Penn Power Sunday night called on crews in Youngstown, Salem and Ashtabula to aid repairs. Scores of utility poles had to be replaced in order to restore power to entire neighborhoods. Crews worked double shifts, at times during drenching rain and high wind.

"The only fortunate thing in all of this was the damage was concentrated in one main area, it wasn't spread out,'' Coleman said. "The distance from getting to one point to another wasn't too bad.''

Penn Power's Mercer County maintenance operation in Clark is less than a mile from where the tornado touched down.

"I never thought I would see a tornado delivered right to my door, but that's what this is,'' Coleman said.

Telephone service was spotty in some areas but, overall, few problems were reported. One exception was Stupka Motors on North Hermitage Road in Hermitage.

The dealership, about a mile south of where the twister touched down, was without phone service Monday, said sales manager Bob Urban. Verizon Corp. said service was to have been restored by early Monday, but by mid-afternoon the dealership still was without phones, Urban added.

Business at the dealership's service department was off by half, he said.

A Verizon spokesman wasn't available for comment.

"We just want people to know we're open for business,'' Urban said.