WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – As D.C. area thunderstorms punished living conditions and have left about 2 million area residents without power, the major power and energy companies have taken to Twitter to provide updates on restoring power to homes.

With phone lines still being spotty after wind gusts ranging between 60 to 80 mph tore through D.C., Virginia and Maryland, residents are turning to Twitter for answers of just when they will expect their power to be restored. The Washington Post reports that more than 440,000 PepCo customers had lost power due to the storm. PepCo’s website has also been affected, going in and out in the hours since the brunt of the storm swept through the area. As of 12:30 p.m. Saturday, Baltimore Gas and Electric has restored power to 111,573 of its 418,059 customers who’ve lost power. A short time ago, Dominion Virginia Power issued a press release stating that more than 900,000 of its customers had been affected, noting that its customers in Fairfax, Arlington, Alexandria and Fredericksburg had been hit the hardest.

Below is a running log of tweets sent out by PepCo, Baltimore Gas and Electric since the storms ravished the D.C. area.

PepCo

1:38 p.m.: Critical customers who need electricity for life support equipment are being encouraged to seek shelter where there is power.

1:35 p.m.: Pepco is making recorded outbound calls to all customers today to update them on the status of our restoration efforts.

11:31 a.m.: @JanineNickel We are continuing to conduct a full damage assessment and working to restore power as quickly and safely as possible. Thanks.

10:38 a.m.: @philmunson Assessing damage and estimating when customers will be restored could take more than 24 hours after the storm passed.

10:08 a.m.: @KVG_DC Due to widespread damage and the large number of outages, we expect the power restoration effort will take several days.

7:05 a.m.: We cannot provide an estimated time of restoration until the damage assessment is completed.

7:02 a.m.: We are conducting a comprehensive damage assessment which will allow us to strategically deploy crews to work full force on the outages.

6:59 a.m.: Friday night’s violent wind storm with winds in excess of 70 miles per hour has left more than 420,000 customers without power.

BGE

3:13 p.m.: Crews are working diligently to restore power. Nearly 130K restored thus far. Still more to do.

11:41 a.m.: @dickster1961 BGE Crews are working as safely and quickly as possible to restore power.

11:16 a.m.: @mzrandomchatter ETR’s will be delayed during your call to our outage number. Keep in mind all ETR’s are estimates and could change.

10:11 a.m.: @jennyofthemist We do not provide reimbursements for food spoilage and suggest the USDA site for keeping food safe in extended outages…

8:59 a.m.: @hitshrink BGE no longer distributes dry ice in order to better support restoration efforts.

5:21 a.m.: Over 58,000 BGE customers restored from the storm with high winds and rain that hit our service territory

3:11 a.m.: Widespread severe thunderstorms entered our service territory after 10p w/ wind gusts of 60-70 mph. About 470K customers lost power:…

2:50 a.m.: @14karatlady Storms had wind gusts of 60-70 mph. Too early to project an ETR. This may be a multi-day restoration due to widespread damage.

1:31 a.m.: We are currently experiencing outages of over 438,000 customers in our service territory

Dominion

3:48 p.m.: Over 900K customers affected, 650K still without power. Here’s our first update video with new information: http://ow.ly/bW3Ek

12:27 p.m.: #Storm-related damage is affecting telephone service and other forms of communications. Pls keep trying we are working to rectify the issue

8:26 a.m.: @m19zy sorry no restoration times yet – to be honest, we have a ways to go before those can be provided. thanks for your patience

8:08 a.m.: Today we will be focusing on public ‪#safety, restoration & networking of the trans grid, damage assess & restoration of critical services.

8:07 a.m.: We anticipate this will be a multi-day restoration and have asked for mutual assistance from other utilities.

8:06 a.m.: Winds in excess of 80mph were common along with intense lightning we’ve restored service to approx 90k impacted but have a ways to go

8:05 a.m.: Powerful ‪#storms have created the equivalent of a hurricane restoration effort on our system as well as several states stretching to Indiana

6:19 a.m.: @carolinebd Assessment in progress..working on emergency services first like 911 and hospitals.

6:07 a.m.: @jazzamonster Right now we are focused on 911 centers, hospitals and critical infrastructure. We don’t have ETR’s yet. Sorry.

4:20 a.m.: @iamgabeortiz With over 800k out and 450k in ‪#NoVa alone, we will have some on tomorrow but doubtful that everyone will be.

3:01 a.m.: @CNALPNRNADNBSN Probably won’t have any ETR for restoration for while. Need time to assess damages for 800k without service.

2:49 a.m.: @KarimaHijane We have over 800k w/o service right now.

12:15 a.m.: @thornberry5321 i don’t have restoration times yet – we have to assess damage first, but crews are working thru the night to restore.

11:33 p.m.: @x0southerngal0x we don’t have restoration times yet – we’ve got to assess damage once it’s deemed safe. thanks for your patience

11:08 p.m.: @vcupav phone lines will be busy due to high volume of calls. Pls keep trying