HERMITAGE, Pa. - PennPower crews have restored most of the power for residents in Mercer County after thousands lost electricity Monday morning. 

PennPower officials told 21 News a squirrel had gotten into a transformer at a substation and caused the transformer to blow.

Authorities said the power went out at around 10 am to 2,084 homes and businesses in several communities.

More than half of the outages were in Hermitage.

Three hundred outages were reported in Sharpesville and 259 in South Pymatuning Township.

Just before noon, the number of outages had been reduced to 1,173.

According to FirstEnergy, residents still without power should see their lights come back on around 2 or 2:30 pm. 

Most of the power was restored at 11:35 pm.