Sitting in the darkness of his home on Third Street in Mc­Keesport last night, Robert Dye said he felt ... powerless.

Many neighborhoods that went dark when gusting winds disrupted power Wednesday night remained dark last night. Power company crews scrambled from one trouble spot to the next, unable to keep ahead of the storm damage.

In some places, power was restored within hours. Elsewhere, however, the electricity was still out last night and it was expected to remain out until tomorrow evening.

Mr. Dye, 40, who lives with his wife and three young children, lost power at 8:12 p.m. Wednesday. Twenty-four hours later, they were still without electricity and had been told by a representative of Duquesne Light that they shouldn't expect power to be restored until 11:30 tonight.

Mr. Dye said many of his neighbors walked outside their dark homes yesterday and discussed their situations. Some had children who were sick, he said. And many of them were concerned whether police would be patrolling their darkened neighborhoods.

The region's power companies reported that there were still thousands of residents without electricity last night. The storm also caused interruptions to service on the Port Authority's Light Rail Transit system, and high water levels at the Point will force the Mon Wharf to be closed to parking again today.

Schools throughout the region delayed or canceled classes yesterday due to power outages. The Kiski School, a prep school for boys in Saltsburg, Indiana County, sent students home until Sunday.

Volunteers of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Red Cross were on alert, and municipalities had been advised to set up warming centers in fire halls.

In Westmoreland County, the Red Cross was helping people at two shelters, at Hempfield Senior High School on Route 136 in Hempfield and Adelphoi Village gymnasium on Lloyd Avenue in Latrobe.

Duquesne Light reported more than 44,000 customers in Allegheny and Beaver counties had lost power Wednesday night and yesterday morning, but more than half of them were back online by 5 p.m. yesterday. By 10 p.m., that number was down to 5,250.

The largest affected communities in Allegheny County were Robinson, 2,100; Ross, 1,150; McKeesport, 1,000; Kennedy, 850; Plum, 700; and Monroeville, 550.

In Beaver County, hundreds were without power in Beaver Falls, White Township and Rochester.

Duquesne Light spokesman Joseph H. Vallarian said there were 750 reports of downed wires, 300 reports of damaged or downed trees, and 80 reports of broken poles.

"Throughout the day, we'd get stuff fixed and then we'd get more reports of outages."

The problem, he said, wasn't just the storm's intensity, but its size. Normally, when storms interrupt service, the power companies call in crews from other areas.

"We're talking about all the way from Kentucky to the East Coast, there are people affected by this storm," he said. "There are not a lot of people to be had. ... We did manage to get 50 people from Michigan. They're coming in [last night] and they'll be out [today]."

Allegheny Power spokesman Mark Nitowski said that when it's all done, more than 320,000 of his company's customers in southwestern Pennsylvania will have been affected at one time or another by the storm.

"This could be the worst storm, in terms of customer outages, in Allegheny Power's history," he said. "The previous mark was in October 2005, when there was less than 300,000."

About 32,000 Allegheny Power customers remained without power last night.

Mr. Nitowski said Allegheny Power expects some help from Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities, which is sending crews today.