About 1,500 customers were still without power at 9 p.m. last night as Belco continued its efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Igor.

Spokeswoman Susan McGrath-Smith warned some people would remain powerless at the weekend because work is proving slow and difficult.

She also pointed to instability on the system and the need to turn off some circuits temporarily as they complete jobs throughout the rest of the week.

"The jobs are numerous and most require a lot of work," she said in a statement.

"What's more, each job is only restoring power to a small number of customers with the maximum we expect to see restored with any one job being about 40 customers.

"That said, two crews are also tackling the easiest jobs across the Island to get those customers restored.

"As we approach the weekend, we expect that the majority — but not all — of the remaining customers will have power.

"Some customers could be off through the weekend. We are focused on completing restoration work as quickly as possible, but must emphasise that there is still a lot of work to be done.

"Customers who have been without power longest are being given priority. However, we caution that some of these may be difficult jobs."

She said crews would be digging holes for new utility poles, before other workers put the poles in place and connect the lines.

"We must caution that jobs involving pole replacement do require a lot of work, so these restorations will take time," she said.

"We also wish to advise customers who have partial current that in order to safeguard appliances, they should either unplug them or turn off power completely.

"And, we want to emphasise safety: downed lines should be considered live — piles of debris may conceal downed lines. Please use generators safely, because if inappropriately operated, they can pose hazards to our crews working on the lines."

Igor left 28,700 Belco properties without power. At 9 p.m. last night, 1,580 were still without power: 810 in central parishes, 540 in the east and 230 in the west.