OHIO VALLEY — With over 100-degree temperatures forecasted again this weekend, projections remain on target for most of the tri-county area to have electricity restored before then.

Estimates by American Electric Power (AEP) on Wednesday afternoon show that more than half of the customers in Meigs and Mason counties remain without power, while more that 30 percent are out in Gallia County.

Mason County has the largest number of residents without power in the area. As of 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, 7,746 customers in Mason County remained without electricity. That number is drastically reduced from the initial figure of 13,001 (87.4 percent) without power on Saturday morning.

Appalachian Power is estimating power to be restored to Mason County by Saturday evening.

As of 3 p.m. on Wednesday, 52.1 percent of AEP customers in Meigs County remained without electricity. According to the AEP Ohio website, 5,929 customers in the county were without power.

Initially, 88 percent or 10,019 customers were without power as a result of the storms on Friday evening.

In Gallia County just over 30 percent of the 9,916 AEP Ohio customers remained without power.

Gallia County had the highest initial rate of outages at 89.3 percent or 8,867 customers.

Estimates show that Meigs County should have electricity completely restored by Friday night.

In Gallia County, the majority of the customers are expected to have electricity restored by Friday evening, while some may be out of power until Sunday evening.

A statement released on Wednesday morning by AEP Ohio reads:

As of 9 a.m. today, AEP Ohio had restored power to approximately 70 percent of the 660,000 customers affected by the catastrophic storms that moved through the state June 29 and the additional 20,000 outaged by the July 1 evening storm. AEP Ohio will continue to work around the clock through the Fourth of July holiday to restore service to customers as safely and quickly as possible.

Approximately 197,000 customers remain without power. Approximately 108,000 of those without power are located in central Ohio counties of Franklin, Delaware and Licking. In Franklin County – the hardest hit area – the number of affected customers stands at 49,000. At the peak of the storm on June 29, approximately 45 percent of AEP Ohio customers were without power.

A statement by Appalachian Power (which serves portions of West Virginia and Virginia) reads:

As of Wednesday morning, approximately 50 percent (or 287,437 out of the 573,000) of Appalachian Power’s customers who were out of power from Friday’s storm are now restored.

In West Virginia, 174,960 of the company’s half-million customers remain without electric service.

Buckeye Rural Electric Cooperative (BREC) , which serves portions of Gallia and Meigs counties, is reporting that 152 of their 1,299 customers in Meigs County remain without power on Wednesday afternoon.

In Gallia County, the number is slightly higher at 265 customers out of 5,814.

In total, 1,437 Buckeye Rural customers of their 18,928 (7.59 percent) were without power on Wednesday afternoon.