UPDATE 3-More than 230,000 without power in US East after storms

Dec 21 (Reuters) - More than 230,000 homes and businesses were without power in the Eastern half of the United States Friday afternoon, down from over 320,000 earlier in the day, after a series of snow and rain storms battered the area, power companies said. The hardest hit states Friday afternoon were Michigan, Wisconsin, New York and New Jersey, but outages also remained in Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Nebraska and Iowa from storms on Thursday. Storms knocked out power to more than 680,000 customers over the past couple of days. The following is a list of some of the hardest hit utilities.

Power Company Holding Company State Out Now Peak Out Consumers Energy CMS MI 55,900 62,700 AEP - Indiana Michigan AEP IN, MI 18,900 18,900 National Grid - NY National Grid NY 16,100 16,100 Public Service Electric PSEG NJ 12,000 22,800

and Gas

Detroit Edison DTE MI 10,000 10,000 Entergy - Arkansas Entergy AR 9,200 37,100 We Energies Wisconsin Energy WI 8,700 12,200 FirstEnergy - New Jersey FirstEnergy NJ 8,500 26,500 Alliant - Wisconsin Alliant WI 8,200 8,800 Duke - Indiana Duke IN 8,000 8,700 MidAmerican Berkshire Hathaway IA 7,400 43,300 AEP - SWEPCO AEP AR, LA, TX 6,800 57,400 NYSEG Iberdrola NY 6,300 7,600 Ameren - Illinois Ameren IL 5,300 11,600 Omaha Public Power OPPD NE 5,300 40,200

District

Oncor Energy Future TX 5,100 39,700

Holdings

National Grid - National Grid MA 4,200 4,200

Massachusetts

Connecticut Light & Northeast Utilities CT 3,900 3,900

Power

Long Island Power LIPA NY 3,000 7,200

Authority

FirstEnergy - West FirstEnergy WV, VA 2,800 3,600

Virginia

Dominion Virginia Dominion VA, NC 2,800 2,800 Public Service New Northeast Utilities NH 2,700 2,700

Hampshire

Ameren - Missouri Ameren MO 2,500 4,400 Georgia Power Southern GA 2,100 2,100 Atlantic City Electric Pepco NJ 2,000 7,400 AEP - Appalachian AEP WV, VA 1,700 5,600 Duke - Carolinas Duke NC, SC 1,500 2,600 Entergy - Louisiana Entergy LA 1,500 22,000 Con Edison Con Edison NY 1,400 3,500 FirstEnergy - Ohio FirstEnergy OH 1,400 1,400 Entergy - Texas Entergy TX 1,200 19,000 Central Maine Iberdrola ME 1,100 1,100Total Out Now 227,500