NOTE: This full recap of Tropical Storm Phillipe's affect on Newtown ran in the print edition of November 3, 2017. Individual stories about the storm were posted online earlier this week. 

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A rain system that stalled over the region on Sunday intensified overnight, with strong winds taking their toll on root systems weakened by wet ground. With a number of trees or large branches falling during the weather event - the tail end of Tropical Storm Philippe - nearly 30 Newtown roads were either closed or partially impassable by the following morning due to those trees, many taking wires with them.

In addition, approximately 1,500 Eversource customers were without power by midday October 30.

As a result of all this, Newtown public schools and many preschools decided to cancel classes for Monday. Schools reopened on Tuesday.

Rain was around all day Sunday. Sandy Hook had received 3.71 inches of rain by 10:05 pm Sunday, according to data from the Western Connecticut State University Weather Center.

The center of town received five inches of rain during the October 29-30 event. According to data collected by a Wunderground weather station located on Queen Street, 4.98 inches of rain fell in the center of town on Sunday. Another 0.73 inches was collected at that location on Monday.

Winds picked up around 11 pm Sunday, and continued to gust for a few hours, accompanied by very heavy rains. By daybreak, both had calmed, but were still present.

At 9 am Monday, Eversource was reporting 920 power outages in town, representing 8 percent of its 11,070 customers in Newtown. By 5 pm, however, the first number had jumped, with nearly 600 additional customers without power.

Gary Lessor, assistant to the director of meteorological studies and the Weather Center at WCSU, shared information with The Newtown Bee late Monday morning that showed wind gusts regionally reached into the mid-60s during the storm.

Stamford had a recorded wind gust of 65 mph at 12:36 am Monday, according to data provided by Mr Lessor. Lower Fairfield County recorded gusts of 54 to 64 mph between 10:40 Sunday evening (in Old Greenwich) and 1:59 am Monday (Fairfield). Readings for anything closer to Newtown were unavailable, he said.

Hawleyville Fire was the first company sent out on a rain-related wires down call. The company was dispatched at 2:12 Sunday afternoon to the area of 15 Farrell Road. Botsford Fire responded to two calls, one on Toddy Hill and another on Kaechele Drive, during the 8 o'clock hour on Sunday, and then two additional calls for wires down were received before 11 pm.

When the winds kicked up around 11, so did the calls for help. Between 11 pm and midnight, seven calls were responded to. Calls continued through daybreak, with firefighters sent to 20 locations by 6 am.

A Wind Advisory issued by the National Weather Service for the southern half of Connecticut, including Newtown, was in effect until 2 pm Monday. As a result of those continued winds, firefighters and Eversource crews continued to respond to new locations with wires down even after the rain subsided by midmorning.

By 4:12 pm Monday, firefighters from all five of the town's companies had responded to a combined total of 57 storm-related calls, according to the fire reports from Newtown Emergency Communications Center. In addition to 52 wires down calls - or 89 percent of the storm-related calls during that period (firefighters also had three non-storm-related calls to respond to during the 27-hour period) - there were three calls to dispatch for residential fire alarms that may have been set off by the storm, two calls for pumping detail, and one for a tree onto a garage.

The highest concentrations of calls came between 11 pm and midnight, when firefighters responded to nine calls; 1 to 2 am Monday, when they responded to seven calls; and then during the 7 am hour, when another five calls were reported.

Joe Tani, operations manager for Newtown Highway Department, said Public Works crews were called in around 11 pm Sunday due to the storm. Those town employees cleared trees when it was safe to do so and created temporary road closures where necessary.

Some homeowners were unable to leave their homes due to trees and/or wires blocking their driveways Monday morning. In at least two instances, vehicles had power lines on or around them. One homeowner contacted Newtown Emergency Communications Center to report a power line had fallen across their front door, temporarily blocking that entryway.

A detached garage on Woodbine Lane was heavily damaged around 11 pm Sunday, when a tree fell on that outbuilding. No injuries were reported in that incident, nor in any other storm-related calls.

Public Works and Eversource crews, according to an e-mail blast from the Town of Newtown issued Wednesday morning, worked through the Tuesday overnight to continue storm recovery. By that morning the number of power outages had dropped to 101.

"Clusters of outages of 10 or more remain on 6 of the most impacted roads," an e-mail from town officials offered that morning. "Single/double outages are scattered throughout the town. All roads are passable."

Eversource crews had hoped to have "substantial restoration" by 6 pm Wednesday, the e-mail mentioned.

"Please be aware … that some of the outage events are complex and require additional time," it continued. "Thank you for your patience with the Make Safe and restoration process. This has been a difficult process for many homeowners. We all appreciate how frustrating it is to be without power for these several days."

While the loss of power for any resident was an inconvenience, some southeastern parts of the state had much higher percentages of homes and businesses without power as the middle and end of the week approached.

Northern New England was much harder hit as well, with flooding and other severe storm damage reported.

For Newtown this storm, while arriving less than 48 hours prior to Halloween, was nothing like Superstorm Sandy of five years ago. That storm, among other things, led First Selectman Pat Llodra to ask residents to keep children home instead of going trick-or-treating, due to the large scale damage following the hybrid hurricane/Nor'easter that arrived that year, four days before Halloween.

There was no concern that this weekend's storm would put much, if any, damper on trick-or-treating this time around. By Tuesday morning the town was reporting 425 power outages and that all but two town roads (Gray's Plain and Rowledge Pond) had been reopened.

"All crews will continue to work throughout the day," an e-mail from town officials offered the morning of October 31. "Thank you for your patience with the Make Safe and restoration processes. Please be safe, but enjoy Halloween activity."