3 days after storms, 66,500 utility customers still in the dark in S. Jersey

Updated at 12:50 p.m.

Utility crews working around the clock have restored power to more than 140,000 customers who lost electricity in the weekend's deadly storms in South Jersey but three days later some 66,500 others are still in the dark.

And officials say it might not be until Friday when everyone is back on line.

Candles in the meantime are being blamed for a fire that destroyed a home without electricity in Mays Landing, Atlantic County. No injuries were reported in the 2 a.m. blaze in the one-story wood frame home on Garfield Avenue.

Atlantic City Electric Co. says the fierce storms that rolled through South Jersey early Saturday, knocking down trees and cutting power lines, was "one of the most catastrophic weather events that the Mid-Atlantic region has experienced since Hurricane Isabel in 2003."

The storms, which have been blamed for three deaths in South Jersey, knocked out electricity to about 206,000 Atlantic City Electric customers, most of the them in Atlantic and Cumberland Counties. That was about 60,000 more outages than Hurricane Irene caused last August, the utility said.

The violent weather coincided with the start of one of the busiest vacation weeks of the summer at the Shore, and was blamed for a fire that destroyed a historic church in Longport.

Still, the barriers island Shore resorts in Cape May County were spared the brunt of the damage.

Of those still without power this afternoon, 39,000 are in Atlantic County and 11,000 in Cumberland County.