Residents in several communities were affected by an electrical outage this morning and officials with Volunteer Energy Cooperative worked in cool weather to restore the power by 9 a.m.

Some 50 customers were still without power at 9:30 a.m., but crews were continuing to work.

Robert McCarty of VEC said the outage began at 5:45 a.m.

“It affected Hopewell, Frontage Road, Eureka Road and areas in the Freewill community,” McCarty said.

McCarty said schools and radio stations in the area were affected, as well as some 600 households and businesses.

“The likely cause of the outage was line fatigue caused by winds experienced over the past several days. Linemen found broken connections due to the lines moving,” McCarty said.

According to weather station data in the western portion of Bradley County, wind gusts of 15 mph or greater were recorded during the past few days as the effects of now Post-Tropical Cyclone Sandy moved north.

Hurricane Sandy caused heavy damage in the Northeast and a clash of weather systems created snow and ice conditions in Tennessee as well as other states.