OSWEGO, N.Y. (AP) — More than 70,000 utility customers were without power Wednesday after severe thunderstorms rolled across upstate New York a day earlier.

Tuesday's storms knocked over trees, brought down power lines and damaged homes in an area stretching from the Rochester area to the Catskills and the Vermont border.

Authorities in St. Lawrence County in northern New York issued an advisory against unnecessary travel because of extensive storm damage there.

National Grid reported about 28,000 of its customers were without power Wednesday, most of them in central and northern New York. New York State Electric & Gas reported about 15,000 without power, most of them in the Catskills, while Central Hudson Gas & Electric said it had 30,000 outages in Ulster, Dutchess and Orange counties.

Improved weather will help crews restore power to some NYSEG customers Wednesday, but others may not get their electricity back until Friday, utility spokesman Clayton Ellis said. National Grid expected to have power restored in some areas by the end of the day, but the utility said power restoration estimates for some of the hardest hit areas in northern New York hadn't been determined.

The fast-moving storms are blamed for at least two deaths.

Logger Kenneth Yousey Jr., 47, was killed in Lewis County when he was hit by a tree blown down by high winds and a 51-year-old Pennsylvania man died after his motorcycle hit a tree that had fallen across an Adirondack road.

State police said Gordon Hall Jr. of New Columbia, Pa., was riding in the town of Wilmington when his motorcycle hit the fallen tree. He was later pronounced dead at a Lake Placid hospital.