Electricity has been restored to more than half Bermuda's homes, but the work suffered a setback when the 36 support workers flying in from the Caribbean were delayed a day and will now arrive tomorrow.

And CableVision has started restoring services to customers in Pembroke, although it cannot say when the rest of the Island will be switched on.

BELCO said last night 15,000 out of 25,000 homes now have power, but spokeswoman Linda Smith-Wilson was unable to state when all will be back online.

"It is going to be a long haul as some areas are very badly damaged. I don't know how long the haul is," she said.

She urged residents with power to allow friends and neighbours to come round to shower and have a meal to ease the strain.

Fifty seven out of 75 main switches are back - seven are out in the east, five in the west and six in central - and all are expected to be back by today or tomorrow.

The help crew from the Caribbean Electric Association had been expected in today, but due to problems co-ordinating movements of the plane based in Cayman, they will not arrive until tomorrow.

BELCO is already using the local power contractors to help with the work. She said if power is restored to a street and a house is without electricity, it is due to a secondary fault, probably near the property and these should be reported.

BELCO teams are also working on cases where power is restored and there are small individual faults resulting in extra bright lights in a house or even sparks.

Mrs. Smith-Wilson also urged drivers to be patient when BELCO trucks were driving slowly assessing power lines. Some people have been overtaking them, which hadn't helped.

And she warned adults and children not top touch any wires that may be down, even if they are covered in rubble.

"The wires may not be live, but when they energise the system they will come back live," she said.

CableVision is now receiving signals again at head office for all channels except 3, 8, 21 and 32 and service has been restored to the majority of Pembroke customers, the company said.

But it still has to repair cables and the fibre optic network before service can be restored - and then only to customers with electricity.

The BELCO and CableVision networks don't overlap, so some customers may have electricity, but not cable, said the company.

Bank of Bermuda said yesterday it is fully operational with between 80 percent and 100 percent of staff turning up at its various business divisions.

Somerset branch will re-open today, St. George's will be open tomorrow, and just seven out of the 33 ATMs are still down.