Sadiqul Haque sells merchandise on the street outside his father’s store inthe New York borough of Queens despite the blackout. (AP)

New York, July 22 (AP): A blackout in the New York city borough of Queens entered its sixth day today with more bad news: mayor Mike Bloomberg said some 15,000 to 20,000 utility customers were still without electricity and chances were small that the problem will be repaired by the end of the weekend.

Con Edison, a utility company in New York state, has estimated that as many as 100,000 people have been without electricity. It was unclear exactly how many were still out today, since a customer could be a single person, or a big apartment building.

The utility has not been able to explain why the power distribution system began failing in the area at the height of a heat wave. It also has appeared confused, at times, over how many people are still in the dark.

A round of severe thunderstorms yesterday hindered efforts to repair a series of unexplained electrical failures in the borough and Con Edison crews have been finding more and more damage as they inspect underground cables, the mayor said.

“When they’ve opened these manholes, they’ve found more damage than they thought they would find,” Bloomberg said.

Power has been out for some residents and businesses since Monday. Bloomberg said yesterday’s bad weather knocked out some major circuits that had only recently been restored.

Electrical crews from as far away as Pittsburgh and Columbus, Ohio, were on their way to New York to assist in the restoration of the network, he said.

Yesterday, Con Edison revealed that the outage was 10 times larger than it had previously reported ? an acknowledgment that drew a furious response from some residents and city leaders.

“I’m very angry. I’m really mad,' said Koi Getbam, who estimated that her food market has lost $30,000 since the power went out earlier in the week.

Con Edison originally said the blackout only affected 2,500 customers, but provided a new estimate yesterday of 25,000, saying the initial figure was based only on the number of customers who called to complain. The number increased to 26,000 customers late yesterday.

Most of New York’s electrical grid is underground, so it is less vulnerable than overhead lines. But that can also make it harder to find and correct a problem.