ATLANTA -- Sunday night's surprise storms that raced across the state with hail and lightning triggered more than 600 power outages that left as many as 130,000 Georgia Power customers in the dark.

Crews working through the night restored power to most, but by 9 a.m. there were still 20,000 customers in Savannah, Brunswick and along the coast without electricity, according to company spokeswoman Carol Boatright.

"Because there are so many separate events, it's going to be slow," she said.

While most of the 800 events that created the outages were storm related, some resulted from the heat. The record temperatures drove up air conditioner usage as well as adding stress on transformers and other equipment.

Georgia Power is bringing in crews from its sister companies in Alabama and Florida to help speed the repairs. Ironically, the companies had all sent a few crews to Virginia last week to assist utilities there where 3 million customers are still without power.

Boatright said it's customary for utilities to help one another and that there was no way to know they would be needed here.

"I don't think anyone anticipated the tremendous velocity of the storms that went through last night," she said, adding that the company subscribes to multiple weather services.

Georgia's electric-membership cooperatives also sent 60 workers to Virginia on Friday from nine cooperatives. Because many EMCs serve rural areas, evaluations can take longer, according to Jim Wright, the statewide crew-assistance coordinator for the EMCs.

"It takes time for EMCs in the affected areas to complete damage assessments and develop a plan that allows for the most efficient power restoration process," he said.

Equipment and crews have been sent from Blue Ridge Mountain EMC in Young Harris, Canoochee EMC in Reidsville, Carroll EMC in Carrollton, Central Georgia EMC in Jackson, Okefenoke Rural EMC in Nahunta, Snapping Shoals EMC in Covington, Southern Rivers Energy in Barnesville, Sumter EMC in Americus and Tri County EMC in Gray.

Some of those same EMCs suffered outages Sunday night. As on 1 p.m., Georgia EMCs had restored all but a handful of the 9,000 customers who lost power, mostly in Middle Georgia.

"Restoration time was not negatively impacted due to EMCs sending crews to Virginia. Most outages were caused by trees tearing down overhead primary and neutral lines, and rebuilding lines is a time-intensive process," said Terri Statham, Georgia EMC spokeswoman.