Millions across the U.S. Atlantic seaboard have lost power in the wake of a weakening Tropical Storm Irene, and local utilities warned Sunday that some of the outages might persist for days.

A few energy companies reported making some progress in restoring service to customers in Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina and other areas hit by the storm, but New Jersey's Public Service Electric and Gas Co. on Sunday warned customers that they should "be prepared for potentially lengthy outages."

Irene's center was over Connecticut early Sunday afternoon. The storm continued to weaken, with maximum sustained winds at 60 miles an hour, according to the latest update from the National Hurricane Center.

PSE&G, a subsidiary of Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PEG), said Sunday that about 330,000 of its 2.2 million electric customers are without power all over New Jersey, and that number continued to grow as the storm moved north. The utility had said early Sunday that 70,000 customers who had lost power had it restored already; in its earlier report, the utility estimated that it might take up to a week to fully restore service.

Jersey Central Power and Light, a unit of FirstEnergy Corp. (FE), has 373,000 without-power customers in central and northern New Jersey, said spokesman Ron Morano. "There are still some areas that are flooded and inaccessible," he said. It will take several days to restore power to all affected households, Morano added.

Atlantic City Electric, a subsidiary of Pepco Holdings Inc. (POM), reported 90,529 customers without power in southern New Jersey, a slight decrease from 91,272 reported earlier Sunday.

Consolidated Edison Inc. (ED) said that more than 72,000 customers in New York City and Westchester County lost power. According to a map of outages on the company's website, New York City's most affected borough was Queens, with 30,067 customers without power. Con Edison said it expected to fully restore power there by Monday morning. The company said that about 114,568 of its customers were suffering outages.

Connecticut Light & Power, a unit of Northeast Utilities (NU), said 575,247 customers, or 46% of its customer base, had lost power.

Irene first roared ashore in North Carolina on Saturday. Raleigh, N.C.-based Progress Energy Inc. (PGN) said that 176,000 customers were still without power as of early Sunday. The highest number of outages reported by the utility at any one time was about 280,000 around 2 p.m. local time Saturday, and in total, more than 440,000 customers have lost power "for varying periods," the company said.

Progress Energy said it "will take several days to complete repairs, especially in the hardest-hit areas, where storm damage was most severe."

Baltimore Gas and Electric, a unit of Constellation Energy Group Inc. (CEG), said there have been 467,110 reports of customer outages in central Maryland; about 93,000 customers have had their power restored.

In the Washington area, Pepco reported 186,614 customers without electricity, less than the 195,836 it reported early Sunday.

In Virginia and North Carolina, some 887,704 of Dominion Resources Inc. (D) customers were without power because of the storm, the company said. That's down from the 952,000 reported Sunday morning.

Pepco's Delmarva Power & Light in Delaware reported 106,614 customers suffering outages.

-By Angel Gonzalez, Dow Jones Newswires; 281-536-3064;angel.gonzalez@dowjones.com

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