UPDATED: October Snow Storm Brings Damage, Outages to Westwood

Halloween may be coming on Monday, but the snowfall left by Saturday night's winter storm - one that prompted Gov. Deval Patrick to declare a State of Emergency - created more of a winter landscape around the state Sunday morning, including Westwood. 

But despite the scenery, a number of downed tree limbs were reported in town over night. And as of 8 a.m. Sunday, NSTAR reported that 3,835 customers were still without power in Westwood (about 68 percent of NSTAR's customer base in town). 

Update, 3:12 p.m. - As of noontime Sunday, NSTAR's number of residents in Westwood without power dropped from 3,835 to 3,120. To see town-by-town outages, click here.

Westwood residents reported on Facebook that Edgewood Road, Oak Street and Hartford Street were among the neighborhoods still without power as of 11 a.m. Sunday. 

To deal with the outages, officials are looking to open the emergency shelter at Westwood High School in town in order to supply a warm place for people to stay when the temperature drops overnight, according to Westwood Town Administrator Mike Jaillet.

"I think we're basically going to open it as a precaution, have it staffed and available for people to take advantage of," Jaillet said. "Unlike in August, the temperature is going to go down tonight, and some people would prefer to stay at home under those conditions."

Officials will make the ultimate decision on whether to open the shelter after a meeting held at 4 p.m. Sunday. Residents are encouraged to contact Westwood Police at 781-320-1000 and provide input on whether they would like to stay in the shelter, Jaillet added. 

Westwood Department of Public Works Director Vicki Quiram said the storm had indeed brought a number of hassles to town, but that the majority of roadways were accessible. 

"Trees down all over town," Quiram said. "We've managed to keep most of the streets open; The roads are looking pretty good right now."

Many of the trees, she added, were entangled with power lines, and as such crews need to wait for NSTAR to arrive on scene to deal with the issue. 

Residents should report all power outages to NSTAR at 800-592-2000 or online at nstar.com.

Westwood Patch will provide storm-related updates as information becomes available.