Hartford - The president of Connecticut's largest utility said Wednesday that he still believes most of the hundreds of thousands of customers still without electricity due to last weekend's autumn snow storm will have their service restored by late Sunday night.

More than 511,000 homes and businesses remained in the dark Wednesday evening. Jeffrey Butler, Connecticut Light & Power's president and chief operating officer, predicted that number to drop to about 425,000 by this morning as crews work to restore service.

"We are making progress," Butler said. "I realize certainly, with the forecast of cold temperatures, for many of you it's not fast enough. We will continue to work diligently to get people's power back to them as quickly and safely as possible."

Butler said he still believes power will be restored to 99 percent of customers by Sunday. CL&P's peak outages during and after the storm hit a record of around 830,000, but Butler said about 950,000 homes and businesses, about 77 percent of the company's total customers, were affected at some point.

The United Illuminating Co., which serves the greater New Haven and Bridgeport areas, reported scattered outages - about 133 - Wednesday evening. Crews from UI are now helping CL&P and out-of-state line personnel and tree crews with restoration efforts.

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, meanwhile, said there have been seven storm-related deaths in the state, including three carbon monoxide poisonings. Malloy again cautioned residents to not use generators or charcoal grills inside their homes or leave vehicles running in their garages.

"I'm more concerned about loss of life than anything else," Malloy said.

Butler addressed reports that out-of-state crews were slow to come to Connecticut because some hadn't been paid yet for helping in the aftermath of Tropical Storm Irene. He said it is CL&P's practice to pay all invoices in a timely manner after a thorough review and it's not unusual for the company to receive invoices for several months following a storm. He acknowledged that some invoices from Irene are still being reviewed, including some contractors currently working in Connecticut.

Butler has said he does not believe those payments have anything to do with a slow response from out-of-state companies. In fact, he said, there are more line crews in the state now compared to this point for the Irene response.

"We are getting the crews. We continue to get the crews," Butler said. "It's how do we get them here sooner to support restoration."

Butler said that as of 3 p.m. Wednesday there were more than 5,000 employees and contractors working on restoring power, including 1,213 line and tree crews. He said CL&P expects at least an additional 100 line crews to work today and more to follow, especially as restoration in other states affected by the snow storm wraps up.

Butler would not comment on a proposal by Democratic House Speaker Christopher Donovan of Meriden and Rep. Vickie Nardello of Prospect, the co-chairwoman of the legislature's energy committee, to adopt a law similar to one in Massachusetts that fines power companies that do meet certain standards for restoring power following a storm.

Malloy said he has asked the panel he created in the wake of Irene to also investigate problems surrounding restoration of power from this rare autumn snow storm. The Massachusetts legislation could come up as part of that review.

Also on Wednesday, Malloy said his administration had written to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, asking it to amend its partial emergency declaration approved on Monday by President Barack Obama, to include financial assistance to cities, towns and the state. FEMA normally requires a preliminary damage assessment before granting full assistance beyond emergency expenses, such as overtime and shelters. Malloy said he wants FEMA to expedite the process and grant full assistance to all eight counties in light of the severity of the storm.

Malloy also signed two executive orders that extend to Nov. 15 the deadlines for reporting personal property tax declarations and unemployment tax filings.

Malloy said the state has distributed food and water to 41 towns and that 19 towns on Wednesday evening were in the process of receiving their orders. He said 12,500 ready-to-eat meals have been distributed. Also, five state roads remain closed and are expected to be reopened Thursday morning.

In addition, Malloy said, 4.2 million yards of debris needs to be removed across the state.

According to Dennis Schain, communications director for the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, two contractors - a removal company and a monitoring firm that handles the paperwork - were recently hired by the state as part of a debris management plan. He said contractors are scheduled to remove woody debris in Hartford and West Hartford today.