Gov. Patrick: Power restoration better than last Oct.

BOSTON (WHDH) -- Downed power lines and busy crews provided relief -- a sight seen all over Massachusetts on Wednesday.

Thirty-six hours after Sandy’s peak, 80 percent of those who lost power had it restored -- twice the rate from the October storm last year.

“I don’t think anyone is preparing to declare a total victory, particularly with some 89,000 customers still without power, but tremendous progress since the peak 36 hours ago,” said Gov. Deval Patrick on Wednesday.

Utility companies said they’re working around the clock to get the lights back on as soon as possible. NSTAR said by the end of the day Thursday and National Grid said by the end of Friday people should have power restored.

Patrick praised the utility companies after a meeting Wednesday morning, calling it a significant improvement from their response to last October’s storm.

“I think certainly compared to the October experience of last year and compared to most other states, the utilities have stepped up their game,” said Patrick.

The governor said he spoke with President Obama twice about Sandy -- once before the storm hit and again Tuesday in a conference call with governors from the affected states. The call included the president asking each governor about their experiences.

“And the first thing every governor said starting in North Carolina and moving on up the coast is that the partnership and the working relationship with FEMA local and FEMA national has been superb and I would echo that,” said Patrick.

An NSTAR customer in Weston said he is unhappy with the power company.

“I don’t think they’re working that quickly because I pass by on our street and there’s more things that they need to clean up and on Miriam Street, there’s that big tree that fell onto the road,” said Phil Pring.

There are large trees still down in many areas including Roslindale where crews will work well into the night only to restore power to six homes.

“Now we’re down to outages where there is a lot of damage and not as many customers benefiting from the work we’re doing,” said Mike Durand, NSTAR.

As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday there were 74,000 power outages statewide.

The governor said he predicts all power to be restored by late Friday.