Over 20,000 still without power in Southern New Jersey

Tens of thousands of utility customers in southern New Jersey remain powerless five days after a line of powerful storms blew across the state.

Atlantic City Electric reports 24,127 customers were still without service early Sunday morning, with more than half residing in Gloucester County.

Check out a map of the outages here.

The region was among the hardest hit by Tuesday's severe weather, and nearly 280,000 utility customers were without power during the height of the storms. Officials have said that's about 60,000 more customers than those who lost power during Superstorm Sandy in that same area.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie explained in a news conference on Friday why a state of emergency hasn't been declared for hard-hit areas in Southern News Jersey.

"Right now what's happening is FEMA is on the ground with the Office of Emergency Management of the State Police and they are assessing the damage level. You don't need a state of emergency declaration in order to get federal funds if you need a certain threshold and if there's anything that a state of emergency declaration would do to enhance our ability to get more help more quickly, I'd be happy to do that," Christie said.

"But I was convinced ... that we're bringing resources to bear that are necessary," he said. "I was assured by the CEO of Atlantic City Electric [Thursday] night that 90-95 percent of power will be restored by [Friday] evening and that everybody else will be resorted ... over the weekend."

It is unclear if new storms that passed through the area Saturday night have affected the restoration efforts.

Meanwhile, PSE&G announced Saturday that all of its customers affected by Tuesday's ferocious storms had been restored. The utility also said it would be working over the next few days to make a number of temporary repairs permanent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report