Jackson Free Press

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Power companies report progress in restoring electricity to their Louisiana customers more than four days after Hurricane Isaac's landfall.

But more than 246,000 customers remained without power in the state as of late Sunday morning. That was down from a peak of more than 900,000.

The state's largest power provider, Entergy, says its affiliates have reduced the number of outages to 242,465, down from about 704,000 earlier. The company has drawn criticism from residents and some public officials for the pace of restoration.

Cleco Corp, reports 1,741 without power, down from more than 80,000.

Several thousand customers in Mississippi also were without power. Entergy-Mississippi reported more than 2,600 outages; and, an association of not-for-profit electricity providers in the state reported more than 5,500 remaining outages.