Factbox: Some 240,000 U.S. customers without power after Hurricane Michael

(Reuters) - Some 240,029 homes and businesses on the U.S. East Coast were without power on Monday in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael, according to local power companies. Some customers in the hardest hit parts of Florida may have to wait weeks for power to be restored, the utilities said. In total, Michael caused over 2.6 million outages after hitting the Florida Panhandle as a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 155 miles per hour (250 km per hour). Southern Co's Gulf Power unit said it could take weeks to restore power in the hardest hit parts of Florida such as the Panama City area. In Georgia, Southern's Georgia Power unit said it expected to restore service to most customers over the next couple of days. (Reporting by Harshith Aranya in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)