Storm Buries Vineyard Under Tons of Snow

Northeaster Strikes on Monday, Slowing Island Life to Crawl

By MANDY LOCKE

Mother Nature showed little mercy this week - bringing the
Vineyard to a standstill beneath mounds of snow and whipping winds.

From slightly before 8 o'clock Monday morning into the wee
hours of Tuesday, snow buried all that did not move and slowed to a
crawl the few who did venture out in the blizzard-like conditions.

Official tallies at the National Weather Service Cooperative station
in Edgartown registered only 10 and a half inches from the storm that
brought the East Coast to a standstill. Those on the front lines of this
week's weather war, however, reported that in many Island spots
the snowfall topped 18 inches - on top of the eight inches
lingering from the snowfall of Feb. 7.

"The consensus up here is that we got at least 18 inches. The
storm brought localized pockets of bigger flakes, and we got
those," said Chilmark police chief Timothy Rich, noting that
rarely does a winter storm's cleanup require front-end loaders to
clear Squibnocket and Tabor House roads when plows failed.

The airport - which closed operations for 25 hours beginning
Monday at 11 a.m. - measured 13 inches by 3 p.m., before the bulk
of the downpour. Flights resumed Tuesday afternoon.

Winds of 35 miles per hour prevailed through much of Monday,
delivering weather conditions fierce enough to suspend ferry service by
mid-afternoon. Airport manager Bill Weibrecht registered gusts exceeding
45 miles per hour. Visibility diminished to mere yards in the height of
the storm.

Though not furious enough to qualify the Presidents' Day storm
as a blizzard, the wind carved out waist-high drifts, forcing the
closure of the Herring Creek and Katama roads in Edgartown. The town
highway department could only clear the Atlantic drive loop with
front-end loaders Tuesday.

Icicles, dangling from every roof, froze diagonally in the
Island's port town - the artwork of the northeast winds. A
cross-country skier took advantage of the snow, barreling down State
Road by EduComp midday Monday.

At the Steamship Authority terminal, no taxi dared meet the
weather-worn passengers trickling home from off-Island on Monday -
forcing most Islanders to thumb rides with cars leaving the boat or
brave the elements on foot.

"I've driven a cab for five years, and this is the worst
I've seen. We got nailed. I'm still having to tell folks we
can't get them where they want to go," said Scott Correia of
Tisbury Taxi, one of the few drivers venturing out in the days following
the storm.

Even during the height of the storm, when those businesses that
opened Monday morning had long since closed, Islanders could get a
haircut in Oak Bluffs or a video in Vineyard Haven.

"They're naming a battery after me - die hard.
I'm obligated to my customers," said Benny Mancinone, a
barber on Circuit avenue.

"It proved that we are an essential service," said Anne
Evasick, manager of Island Entertainment on State Road, noting that the
first movie out of stock Monday was Blue Crush - evidence that
folks were dreaming of warmer weather.

Island Entertainment waived late fees for movies not returned
Tuesday.

"We didn't expect people to risk life and limb to get a
movie back - even though people seemed to do that to get a
video," Ms. Evasick said.

The plow fleets from town highway departments began their week-long
removal marathon early Monday morning. By Thursday morning, plow drivers
could count the hours of sleep they'd managed to get this week on
one hand.

"The first 20 hours is okay, but after that, it gets
monotonous," said Oak Bluffs highway superintendent Richard Combra
Jr., admitting that the department depleted snow removal funds before
the holiday cleanup began. He estimated this storm will cost the town
between $6,000 and $10,000. Holiday pay for his crew boosted the cost of
this particular storm.

Tht Tisbury public works department, given the green light by town
leaders to dip into emergency funds for snow removal, trucked the snow
mounds last night up to their property on High Point Lane.

"We were tackling the storm continuously," said Fred
LaPiana, director of the department, yesterday afternoon. "We
didn't let up until it let up. It was a continuous fight, and I
think we won."

Officials in Oak Bluffs - the only town to impose a mandatory
driving ban between 9 p.m. Monday and 9 a.m. Tuesday - attributed
the cleanliness of streets by midweek to the shutdown.

"People certainly abided by it. It made our streets look
better than everyone else's," said Oak Bluffs town manager
Casey Sharpe, who spent much of her week manning phones for the town
Council on Aging - the lifeline for elders shut in by
Monday's weather.

Vineyarders didn't need to look far to see the results of the
massive cleanup. Mounds 15 feet high lingered at the base of Circuit
avenue, the loading zones at the Oak Bluffs terminal, by Bend in the
Road in Edgartown and behind Compass Bank in Tisbury.

Stuart Fuller, Edgartown's new highway superintendent, devoted
Tuesday afternoon to trucking the heaps of snow - 12-foot heaps
covering a third of the yacht club parking lot - cleared from Main
street earlier that morning to the town's landfill. Mr. Fuller
remembers the snow removals of his childhood, when workmen would dump
the sand-colored snow clumps in the harbor - a practice long since
made illegal by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Mr. Fuller said the department's overtime fund, $3,500, was
exhausted Monday morning. Short one crew member, who is on vacation, Mr.
Fuller pulled a former employee out of retirement in the effort to stay
ahead of the snowfall.

This week was touch and go for Chappaquiddick residents, who were
stranded at home for long periods. Edgartown harbor completely froze
over the weekend, leaving a relatively clear channel for the On Time
Ferry to slip beside.

"We were forced to shut down a couple of hours a day when
chunks of ice drifted off from the harbor. The ice would build up around
the slip and we couldn't get to the ramp," said Roy Hayes,
Chappaquiddick ferry owner.

Despite nature's fury Monday, the Island escaped with few
serious mishaps. Martina Mastromonaco, coordinator of the Tri-Town
Ambulance, said there were no emergencies her service couldn't
handle.

An Oak Bluffs ambulance needed a tow Tuesday afternoon when it got
stuck after responding to a call at Ocean Park.

The emergency room team treated no storm injuries during the height
of Monday's snow, though they've seen a steady stream of
patients affected by the flu, shoveling sprains and slips on the ice.

Tuesday morning, most folks remained stranded at home. Terry Andrade
of Your Market walked a mile to work after her car got stuck near her
Shady Oak home.

Mainly those with trucks and SUVs braved the roadways - armed
with shovels and tow lines, itching to be helpful to others stranded in
the snow.

"We were lucky for a lot of reasons. A lot of people continued
to be snowed in Tuesday, dulling the idle curiosity that forces people
out on the roadways. It allowed the plows to keep up," said Chief
Rich.

Edgartown police left their cruisers in the lot, sticking to the
three vehicles with snow and ice traction. Officers used the wedge on
their emergency response truck only a few times - once to pull an
officer out of his driveway to report to work.

Only a few calls sputtered across the scanner Tuesday - a
two-year-old locked in a car in front of the library, a rear-ended Mazda
on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, a sideswipe on Oyster Pond Road,
carbon monoxide buildup in a house on School street.

Phil Levesque and Eric Hathaway of the Edgartown water department
spent all day digging out fire hydrants buried beneath snow drifts.

Along Beach Road, ice spread as far as the eye could see across
Nantucket Sound, puzzle-piece chunks drifting between the jetties.

Paulo Ferreira of Wrap-N-Roll - rumored to be selling the only
coffee in Tisbury Tuesday morning - racked up over $100 in tips
just for being open.

Aside from the sideswipes, spin-outs and standstills, the Island was
quiet Tuesday - those not hibernating indoors played outdoors.
Island schools closed for the day, allowing the kids to play at
Sweetened Water Farm in Edgartown and Tashmoo Overlook in Tisbury.

Wednesday morning, birdsong seemed to express the relief everyone
felt after climbing out from beneath Monday's snow. Lunchtime on
Circuit avenue brought a traffic jam of folks desperate to meet friends
at Linda Jean's for some much-needed human contact.

Karon Hill and M.E. Jones chatted over a table of warm sandwiches at
the busy diner. Healing a case of cabin fever brimming since Saturday,
the friends shared passages from books they'd devoured during the
storm.

"I didn't think I was going crazy until I actually got
out of the house," said Ms. Jones, who hadn't even begun to
dig her car out of a plowed-in spot on the street.

Ms. Hill, a chiropractor, closed her practice for a few days, but
said she expected soon to be flooded with patients for treatment of
shoveling injuries.

Bette Carroll, who recently celebrated her 80th birthday, dined with
son Sam Carroll and shared tales of blizzards from her childhood.

"This is nothing," she said with a laugh.

Malcolm Keniston, who ventured out from Edgartown Wednesday
afternoon with his wife, Marion, also downplayed Monday's storm.

"I remember when I was five or six years old - it was
1916 - the snow climbed well over the fence in our yard,"
Mr. Keniston said.

But for most, this week's storm heightened the sense of winter
isolation on the Island.

The light at the end of the tunnel, Mr. Fuller said yesterday, is
spring - only five weeks away.

"We're in for one nasty mud season. March can be bleak
under the best of conditions - but mud can be the straw that
breaks the camel's back psychologically. We're setting
ourselves up for that," Chief Rich said.