AUBURN — More than 55,000 Maine residents, some of them in highly populated residential areas of Lewiston and Auburn, were forced to rely on camping skills as they waited for their power to be turned back on in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene.

“The old-fashioned skillet comes in handy,” said Donna Manson as she baked a shepherd’s pie on a gas grill in the backyard of her Granite Street home in Auburn on Tuesday evening.

The storm has left Manson and her husband, Clayton, without electricity for the last 48 hours. They’ve been cooking meals on the grill and making trips out for coffee in the morning.

“Thank goodness it’s not hot, and it’s not cold, so we’ve been able to keep comfortable,” Manson said.

When the sun goes down, the couple uses a combination of battery-powered fluorescent lights, oil lamps, and book lights to see, she said. They pulled out their old Scrabble board to pass the time, Manson said.

“You dig out all the old resources when there’s no TV and no computer,” she said, adding that they’re using an iPad to keep up with the news.

A few blocks away on Davis Street, the neighborhood has banded together to make sure that everyone is getting by, Bobbi Bubier said.

One family came by before the storm and asked if they had everything they needed, and another offered to pick up ice after the storm, said Bubier, a diabetic who needs to keep her insulin injections chilled.

The level of community involvement has been refreshing, she said, and the lack of distractions has forced people to slow things down for a few days. “It’s nice, we’ve been able to sit and talk and visit; to take a break from our busy lives,” she said.

Bubier is also blind, so she is especially sensitive to sound. “At night, it’s so quiet,” she said.

But after several days of no power, it’s not all relaxation and crossword puzzles by candlelight for everyone.

“It’s very inconvenient,” said Shannen Duclos from the steps of her home on Granite Street. She’s had to haul the food from her freezer to her work to keep it from spoiling, and has packed her refrigerator with ice so that her daughter can have milk in the mornings and something to bring for lunch at her day care program, she said. “I’m ready for a supper at this point,” Duclos said.

Her son, who had just gotten out of the hospital on Sunday after an appendectomy, has been forced to stay at his father’s house since the storm left his mom without power. “We’re bumming,” Duclos said.

The most frustrating part of the ordeal was the lack of information, not knowing when the power might return, she said.

CMP reported that of the 280,000 who had lost power during Sunday’s storm, 55,138 customers were without electricity as of 9 p.m. Tuesday. Those without power included 4,967 in Androscoggin County, 7,545 in Oxford County, and 550 in Franklin County.

The utility company said Tuesday night that it expects to complete repair work around the state by late Thursday night. The working conditions are difficult, CMP said.

“We’ve found 259 broken poles, so far,” said CMP Director of Operations Tom DePeter. “That’s the third highest number I’ve seen destroyed since the Ice Storm in 1998. It’s a good indication of how destructive this storm has been.”

Maine electrical outtages by county, as of 9 p.m. Tuesday:

Cumberland: 17,119

York: 11, 477

Kennebec: 10,714

Oxford: 7,545

Androscoggin: 4,967

Lincoln: 1,045

Sagadahoc: 748

Waldo: 688

Franklin: 550

Piscataquis: 122

Somerset: 91

Knox: 63

Hancock: 6

Penobscot: 3

CMP total: 55,138

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services warned about generator safety Tuesday afternoon following two cases of carbon monoxide poisoning in Cumberland County following Tropical Storm Irene. Generators should be kept at least 15 feet from buildings, and never inside; houses should have functioning, battery-powered carbon-monoxide detectors.