Sunday morning was just like Friday and Saturday mornings for thousands of Butler County residents with no electric service — cold.

More than 16,000 West Penn Power customers in the county woke up with no power, but that number fell to 7,106 by late evening and service was expected to be restored to most of the others by Sunday night.

“Our plan is to have the majority restored by 11 o'clock tonight,” West Penn spokesman Todd Meyers said Sunday. “The focus is on the work that brings the largest number of customers back on.”

However, reports of falling power lines continued coming in Saturday and a few came in Sunday.

“Last evening we were continuing to get new outages. That snow and ice never had a chance to melt off the trees,” Meyers said.

Slightly warmer temperatures Sunday were expected to help the more than 500 linemen. The workers Saturday focused on repairing large high-voltage lines that enter substations. Many of those lines fell during the ice and snow storm that struck Thursday.

“We had more than 20 lines that serve both residential and industrial substations fail. They are part of our 25,000-volt subtransmission network. The focus yesterday (Saturday) was to get larger source lines repaired and heat up substations. That work has gone well and has pretty much been competed,” Meyers said.

He said substations reduce the voltage delivered by the large lines and distribute power to customers through smaller circuits.

Assessors scout for damaged lines and utility poles and fallen trees and report their observations to line crews, he said.

“We have a large number of line crews from all places. Butler County has more than 500 linemen and support staff to help them. It's a massive effort,” Meyers said. “There's a huge force out there and mobilized to get the power back on. They'll be working throughout the day.”

He said customers whose power wasn't restored Sunday would have power Monday.

West Penn has received calls that crews who have responded to fallen lines seemed to be standing around not doing anything, he said.

Those workers are the damage assessors, Meyers said. Often times, a lineman responds and terminates the power going to that line. A crew comes later to repair it, he said.

West Penn has been working with school districts to keep them informed and with municipalities to coordinate reopening roads, he said.

He commended the American Red Cross and municipalities that set up warming stations.

Regardless of how cold it feels inside a house, residents should not attempt to use grills or other heating devices not designed for indoor use, he said.

“Stay safe inside,” Meyers said.

About 6,800 county customers of Central Electric Cooperative remained in the dark Sunday afternoon, down from more than 9,000 that morning. Many were expected to have power restored Monday, but some in the more remote areas won't have power until Wednesday.

“This morning all of our substations that West Penn Power serves as the supplier were up and running,” Ken Maleski, cooperative spokesman, said Sunday.

He said damage to service lines couldn't be detected until the substations were re-energized and crews from the cooperative and six crews from other area cooperatives were working to fix the damaged lines. Four more crews from other cooperatives were expected to join the work force Monday.

“Throughout the day Monday, we will put a big dent in that 6,800,” he said.

“Significant progress today, total restoration Wednesday. Right now we anticipate everyone will be restored sometime Wednesday,” Maleski said. “Guys are working around the clock.”