MERRILLVILLE — NIPSCO sent 80 employee volunteers east on Thursday morning to help with power restoration efforts after Hurricane Sandy left 8.2 million people in 20 states in the dark.

It’s estimated that 6 million people between Ohio and New Jersey were still without power Wednesday afternoon.

The volunteers will help FirstEnergy, a utility company which serves areas hit by the hurricane that made landfall earlier this week. At the peak, FirstEnergy had 2.2 million customers without power.

They are prepared to help with patrolling lines, surveying damage, repairing broken poles and fixing downed power lines.

Approximately 6,000 NIPSCO customers were without power due to the inland effects of the hurricane, and most customers had power restored within 24 hours. The company prepared for possible effects to northern Indiana by scheduling additional work crews and staff members out on the roads and at the customer call center.