more than 12,000 households as fierce winds buffeted the Island late Monday and early yesterday.

Robin McPhee, corporate communications manager at Bermuda Electric Light Company (Belco) said at 7 p.m. that power had been restored to all main line circuits across the Island and restoration crews were turning their attention to the smaller pockets of the Island which remained without power.

Ms McPhee said this work would continue until at least midnight and then resume today at 7 a.m.

"This process involves many isolated areas which are scattered across Bermuda,'' she noted.

"Despite the significant progress made in getting the main circuits back on, the pace of our restoration efforts will be slowed down by the number of small areas still without power tonight and the amount of work involved in each situation.

"We currently have all our restoration crews working and they will continue until at least midnight. The restoration effort will begin at 7 a.m.

tomorrow.'' Four emergency crews were on duty over Monday night and early yesterday as Hurricane Gert approached. These crews dealt with emergency calls.

"Despite this, we were able to restore power to 14 circuits or to approximately 9,000 customers between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. At 9 a.m., we had a total of 22 circuits out, affecting approximately 12,000 customers,'' she said.

Ms McPhee said full restoration efforts started as soon as the winds subsided at 3 p.m. when all crews went out on duty with the main line circuits being tackled first.

"Once all crews had reported in, we restored the remaining eight main line circuits within four hours,'' she noted.

The corporate communications manager added that as part of the utility company's restoration plan, engineers were out on the roads conducting surveys of the overhead systems in areas without power in an effort to determine the exact cause of the outages. And four landscaping firms were also called in to clear trees in and around poles and overhead lines.

Ms McPhee said the customer services department in association with the transmission and distribution department identified and attempted to contact all persons identified as medical priorities in Bermuda.

Residents lose power She said those customers were advised to seek assistance from family and friends whose homes had power, or go directly to the hospital once it was safe to travel.

She added that Hurricane Gert did not disrupt essential services such as the Police or the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital.

Customers still without power were asked to call Belco on the 955 power outage reporting line.

Gary Edwards, vice president of finance at the Bermuda Telephone Company Ltd.

told The Royal Gazette his company had 36 reports up to 2.45 p.m. yesterday of telephone outages.

Mr. Edwards said telephone service is expected to be back to normal by tomorrow.

He said a notice was to go out yesterday advising all staff to show up for work today.

John Instone, marketing communications manager for Cable & Wireless Ltd., said Hurricane Gert did not disrupt service of local persons calling overseas or incoming international calls.

Customers of Bermuda Cablevision in some areas were not that fortunate. From early Monday night, cable television went out.

Several efforts were made to contact Bermuda Cablevision and TeleBermuda International Ltd. but there was no response to any calls.