Although Western Massachusetts is making strides every day in regaining power, some of the harder hit areas still remain without power, according to Western Mass. Electric Company spokeswoman Sandra Ahearn.

Ahearn said 18 percent of Amherst customers – 1900 customers – still remained without power as of 4 p.m. yesterday. Fifty-three thousand customers, accounting for 30 percent of WMEC’s clients, were without power as of 4 p.m. yesterday, she said.

Ahearn projected Amherst to be fully restored by midnight on Thursday. She also said that the hardest hit areas in Amherst, Hadley, Easthampton, Hatfield, Huntington and Springfield may not have electricity fully restored until Friday or Saturday. She said there are 400 active crews who will work through the night to help restore power.

Ed Blaguszewski, University of Massachusetts spokesman, said the University is making good progress in the storm recovery and lauded the physical plant for the overtime hours put toward cleaning up and making strides to get the campus back to normal. He said that some of the only things left to do on campus include cleaning up debris and fixing the damaged landscape. Clearing the roadways and sidewalks of all debris will take some time, but progress is being made on the walkways, he said.

He said he hasn’t received any reports of remaining downed power lines, but the situation could be fluid considering falling tree branches and broken limbs.

He addressed the current power outage situation and said the surrounding residents of the university are slowly regaining power. He said hopefully by next week all electricity will be restored.

“It’s been a long and difficult week for a lot of us,” he said.

Students without a meal plan will be offered free meals in the UMass Dining Commons through today. The Campus Center and Student Union will provide 24-hour shelter and a chance to charge cell phones and computers until further notice. The Off Campus Student Center in the Student Union room 208 provides an alternative for shelter and another place to charge electronics and find out information about storm recovery.

Nancy Pierce can be reached at [email protected].