FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) said 280,000 customers in New Jersey , Pennsylvania and Maryland remain without power as a result of Hurricane Irene, which barreled up the East Coast over the weekend.

The bulk of the remaining outages are at its Jersey Central Power & Light unit, which has 240,000 customers without power. The outages at Metropolitan Edison and Pennsylvania Electric Co. total 35,000 and 7,000, respectively.

FirstEnergy said many of the areas still without power experienced severe flooding, which has hampered the damage assessment and restoration process. Many of the outages are isolated and will require a significant number of repairs to bring small numbers of customers back in service.

The company has restored power to more than 640,000, or about 70% of the 920,000 reported outages.

To report an outage, customers should call 1-888-544-4877.

The operator of utilities serving 6 million customers in Ohio , Pennsylvania and New Jersey faces weak demand and pricing for wholesale electricity due to tough economic conditions. In February, the company closed its $4.4 billion acquisition of Pennsylvania 's Allegheny Energy Inc. to create one of the largest electricity producers in the country.

Shares closed at $43.58 and were inactive premarket. The stock has gained 20% over the past year.
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