When the power goes out in Sue McLaren's neighborhood, she loses more than lights. Living with a well run by an electric pump, she also loses water, which prevents her from doing a host of daily chores, from face-washing to toilet-flushing.

Yesterday was Day Three of no power, and McLaren said she's about ready to dip her buckets in nearby French Creek in Chester County. She and her neighbors are among 5,000 customers, mostly in Chester and Montgomery Counties, who remained without electricity, said Peco spokesman Cameron Kline.

The "vast majority" of customers were expected to have their power restored last night, Kline said.

He said that 280 crews had restored electricity to 147,000 customers and that the remaining "small-pocket" areas - such as McLaren's swath of East Vincent Township at the intersection of Hoffecker and Hallman Mill roads - sustained damage that required multiple crews, such as workers to remove downed trees or string new cable.

McLaren, 68, actually dipped herself and her dog in the stream on Wednesday to clean off because the Phoenixville YMCA was also without power. Yesterday, she went there and took a nice hot shower. She also cleaned out her fridge because it was trash day.

The culprit in her case is a tree that split and landed on nearby power lines. The outage also affected Camphhill Village outside Phoenixville. It is a community for adults with developmental disabilities, and a lecture Wednesday evening by Mike McGrath, host of the radio show You Bet Your Garden, had to be held outdoors. "We all took our chairs outside," she said. "And he was really good."

Besides lots of jugs of water for cleaning dishes and flushing toilets, McLaren's survival tips include keeping a gallon jug of drinking water, a crank radio to keep up-to-date with the latest news, a flashlight small enough to fit under your chin - the better to read by - and a hard-wired landline for the telephone.

She said she considered getting a generator, which is what many of her neighbors have done, but ended up discarding the idea because of the expense.

"Having the power off really forces you into a different state of thinking and being," said the retired counselor. "There's something nice about it - but thank goodness, I have a car."

Peco spokesman Michael Wood said the storm marked the sixth "notable" weather-related event of 2008.

"We hope it is not a troubling sign for the rest of the summer," he said.