About 5,000 homes and businesses in Bermuda were expected to be without power this morning — after Belco restored electricity to many thousands more yesterday.

Hurricane Igor left 28,700 properties — more than 80 percent of Belco's 35,000 customers — without power after it battered the Island on Sunday night.

That figure was down to about 5,600 customers by 9 p.m. yesterday and crews were set to continue working until midnight last night to reduce it even further.

Belco's corporate communications officer Susan McGrath-Smith told The Royal Gazette at about 9 p.m. that only one mainline circuit was still out.

She said about 5,600 properties scattered around the Island would still be without power.

"Most of the remaining outages are branch lines, small pockets of customers and individual customers," said Ms McGrath-Smith. "By tomorrow afternoon, we will be able to provide a timetable for completing storm restoration.

"We do want customers to understand that these smaller jobs are time consuming, as they involve a lot of equipment and physical work.

"We will provide a timetable for completion of all restoration by tomorrow afternoon and we are expecting that total restoration could take several days."

She said 24 two-person crews, along with foremen and supervisors, had worked from early yesterday morning to deal with the power outages.

"I'm amazed at what a job those guys have done," she said. "They started out with almost 29,000 this morning and have gotten 24,000 people back on. It's incredible."

Premier Ewart Brown thanked Belco workers "who left their homes and families to work through the night to get our lights on" at a press conference at Global House last night.

"We often forget how dependent we are on electricity and many of us are now painfully reminded of how important it is in our lives," he said.

Hurricane Igor storm surge - 09/18/10 from Kalilah Robinson on Vimeo

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Former Cabinet Minister Quinton Edness contacted this newspaper to praise Belco's handling of the storm.

"They were wonderful in keeping us informed with their two-hour updates all through Sunday, updating us on where the outages were taking place and informing us on how the restoration would take place.

"I know we have given them the Dickens in years past but I have to say they have been first class in this period."

Isolated power outages began to be reported on Saturday and by 4 p.m. on Sunday, as rain and wind lashed Bermuda, about half the Island had no electricity.

Repair crews were stood down for safety reasons at 1 p.m., with a pledge from Belco that work would begin again as soon as it was safe.

By 5 a.m. on Monday, when Igor had long passed the Island and was heading north, 10,500 customers in the central parishes, 7,700 in the east and 9,300 in the west were without power. A total of 65 mainline circuits were out, as well as many branch lines.

Belco had restored power to 7,000 homes by 11 a.m. yesterday morning, when 45 mainline circuits were still out.

Matthew Smith, 32, of Smith's, was clearing trees from Sears Hill Road midmorning yesterday. "We've been without power since Sunday," he said. "That's why we are trying to clear up — so Belco can get through."

Ms McGrath-Smith said Igor caused more properties to lose power than during Hurricane Fabian but the damage caused was much less severe.

About 25,000 customers were left without power when Fabian hit on Friday, September 5, 2003. By mid-afternoon on September 7, 11,000 homes had power restored.

A 20-strong team from the Caribbean Electric Association, in Cayman, were brought in to help after the Category 4 storm.

• Belco is asking customers to phone 955 only with emergencies, as it is aware of outages. Only call to report an outage if your neighbours have had power restored but you have not.