Jay Casterella, a meter supervisor for Central Maine Power, works at the Greater Portland CMP service center a little after 5:30 a.m. on Tuesday, when there were 58,000 outages in the Portland area alone. CMP staff works to deal with public safety and emergency situations first and then they work on the areas that will get the power back on for the largest number of people possible.

Jason Ward, second from left, and Tony Tanguay, take a seat before leading a meeting early Tuesday morning with a group of linemen and supervisors at the Greater Portland CMP service center before they head out to work on the thousands of power outages in their service area. Ward, a line supervisor at CMP, said he had been working since 5 a.m. Monday, but was able to go home and get a bit of sleep before heading back in.

Linemen and supervisors listen to Tony Tanguay, center, talk during their meeting before fanning out over Greater Portland to work on the thousands of outages in their service area.

Tony Tanguay, center, leads a meeting at the CMP service center in Portland before linemen head out to work on outages.

From right, Trevor Norrad and Patrick Nolan, linemen from New Brunswick, Canada, check in with Erica Brilliant, a logistics supervisors at CMP, in Portland before heading out to work. The two linemen from O'Donnell Electric brought five crews down with them.

Lineman Mike Ross, center left, talks with Josh Dennison, an equipment manager for Cape Elizabeth, about which roads they will need closed down to work on power lines. CMP coordinates with city officials, fire chiefs and police when responding to outages after severe weather.

Matt Matoin, a lineman with Central Maine Power, sits for a moment at the Greater Portland CMP service center before heading out to work on outages. Linemen generally work 17-hour shifts with seven hours off to go home and sleep, during mass outages.

Matt Matoin, a lineman with Central Maine Power, pulls debris from downed poles out of the back of his truck before heading out to work on Tuesday morning.

Linemen with Central Maine Power cut down a large tree branch from a power line on Mitchell Road in Cape Elizabeth on Tuesday morning.