Jacob Thompson loved Christmas, and thousands of people moved by his spirit helped him celebrate the holiday early with cards, a police caravan and a visit from penguins, his favorite animal.

The outages are declining as the winds die down, but Central Maine Power reported a peak of 25,000 customers without power less than two weeks after a devastating storm left nearly a half million without electricity.

Crews working in remote areas often need multiple bucket trucks to restore power to a single customer, CMP’s chief executive says.