20,000 Russians working to restore power, repair damage from meteorite CHELYABINSK, Russia, Feb. 16 (UPI) -- Some 20,000 emergency response workers have been dispatched to central Russia to restore normalcy to a vast area damaged by a falling meteorite, officials say. Mikhail Yurevich, the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, said about 100,000 homeowners were affected, RIA Novosti reported Saturday. Gas supplies to hundreds of homes in the city Chelyabinsk were immediately cut off as a safety measure, officials said. Some 3,000 residential homes were damaged. Emergencies Minister Vladimir Puchkov on Saturday commended the teams working in the affected area. He said power, transportation and communications system were "all working stably. "A great deal of work has already been done, and we are now launching rebuilding work," he added. Approximately 1,200 people were hurt, including more than 200 children, Friday when a massive boom created by the giant flying rock blew out windows and damaged buildings around the city of Chelyabinsk, said police and other officials Most of the injuries were from flying glass. About 50 people were hospitalized, with at least two reported to be in "grave" condition. The meteorite was about 55 feet across and weighed about 15.4 million pounds, NASA reported. It exploded 12 to 15 miles above the Earth, generating a shock wave 30 times stronger than the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan, in 1945. The space agency said the object was not related to asteroid 2012 DA14, which safely flew by Earth the same day at an altitude of about 17,000 miles.