UPDATE 2-Nearly 4.5 mln still lack power after Sandy - DOE

(Adds latest data on outages from DOE) Nov 1 (Reuters) - Nearly 4.5 million homes and businesses in 12 U.S. states remained without power on Thursday afternoon, three days after Hurricane Sandy battered the U.S. East Coast, federal data showed. That was down about 200,000 from the 4.7 million customers the U.S. Department of Energy reported as being out earlier on Thursday. In total, at its peak, Sandy left 8.48 million customers in 21 states from North Carolina to Maine and as far west as Illinois without power. That was slightly more than the 8.38 million that lost service during last year's Hurricane Irene.

The following is a state-by-state breakout of customers affected by outages:

State Current Percent of Peak Customers Outages Customers Outages Restored Without Since Peak

Power

Connecticut 348,294 17% 626,559 278,265 Maryland 40,760 2% 311,020 270,260 Massachusetts 12,883

TOTAL: 4,454,650 8,317,507 3,862,857

States with fewer than 1,000 outages were not included in the table.

(Reporting By Scott DiSavino and Eileen Houlihan in New York; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)