Car and driver are stopped in Derry, N.H. on a road littered with fallen trees and wires after an overnight ice storm Friday, Dec. 12, 2008. The ice storm knocked out power to more than a half-million homes and businesses in New England and upstate New York, and authorities say it could take days for all of them to get service back. (AP Photo/Cheryl Senter)

Power is coming back on for much of New England blacked out by last week's ice storm.

By today, electricity has been restored to nearly three-quarters of the customers in the hardest-hit state, New Hampshire. That still leaves about 117,000 homes and business in the dark.

Power remains out for a sizable number in Massachusetts, about 77,000. It's also still out for about 18,000 customers in Maine and fewer than 4,000 in Vermont.

In eastern New York, there's word that as many as 77,000 homes and business may have to wait until tomorrow to get the lights back on.

Yesterday's unseasonably mild weather melted ice on trees and soothed the nerves of many residents. But it also created some problems, as tree limbs snapped back into place. Utility crews have been trying to work fast, before a mix of rain and snow forecast for today hampers their efforts.