FirstEnergy Corp.'s Jersey Central Power & Light, Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. and Consolidated Edison Inc., which owns New York's utility, reduced the storm's blackout count to 761,000 customers as of 2 p.m. from as many as 8.5 million. They restored large swaths of service by focusing recovery efforts on the hardest hit coastal areas and densely populated cities. Total blackouts fell to about 550,000 this morning, according to data compiled by Bloomberg from websites of utilities. Long Island accounted for about 46 percent of that total and about 31 percent were in New Jersey. For Con Edison, "the vast majority" of customers will have power back by Nov. 11, leaving a few in the dark next week, said Michael Clendenin, a spokesman. 'Hand-to-Hand' "We're down to a small number of outages and it's a longer process to restore one or two or five people," he said. "In the beginning it was a large-scale offensive, now you are in hand-to-hand combat."