A huge snowstorm that brought blizzard conditions and record snowfall to much of the Northeast a day after Christmas was comparatively kind here, where only a light snow fell. Still, with winds gusting to nearly 70 miles per hour on the Vineyard and extreme high tides, the severe storm left thousands of down-Island homes without power, many holiday travellers stranded, Island roads flooded and icy enough to cause several accidents, and erosion transforming some Island beaches.

The worst of the storm was felt by Vineyarders and their friends trying to go somewhere, whether it was down the street, or to or from places on the mainland. Steamship Authority ferry service was shut down Sunday night during the worst. The last boat was at 6:30 p.m.

Ferry service was normal Monday morning, though the morning wasn’t normal for most commuters. The more difficult challenge was faced by travelers getting to and from regional airports, or traveling the highways leading to and from the Cape. All Peter Pan buses on the eastern seaboard were canceled Monday.

“We were open, but it was Logan Airport that was closed,” said Sean Flynn, Martha’s Vineyard Airport manager.

“We did get more snow than was forecasted,” Mr. Flynn said. “We expected mostly rain.” But for most of the time the runways were clear here.

There was significant but short-term flooding Sunday night and into Monday morning. The Edgartown Yacht Club dance floor was submerged in eight inches of water. Flooding extended into the waterfront parking lots.

At 5 a.m. Monday morning, fire and police were called to the foot of Main street in Edgartown, to the Ice Cream and Candy Bazaar at 5 Dock street when power lines started sparking as they were being submerged in seawater. Flooding occurred with the early morning high tide.

Five Corners was flooded late at night by seawater and backed-up melted snow and rain, caused by back filling storm drains which usually empty into the harbor. Lagoon Pond Road, which normally floods with rainwater down at Maciel Marine, got covered with seaweed and debris from the pond.

Shortly after a one-car automobile accident in the vicinity of Aero Road on Sunday, much of Edgartown, down to Katama, was left in darkness. The driver was taken to the hospital, according to police. Utility crews turned off the electricity for the area for several hours to remove the vehicle and replace the pole.

West Tisbury had a rash of nine automobile accidents, mostly one-car accidents in the span of three hours starting around 6 p.m.

It was those three hours that the Vineyard resembled the rest of the snow-blown mainland. There were high winds, blizzard conditions. Passable roads that had been wet and clear early in the afternoon suddenly became slippery and treacherous in a span of an hour as the temperature dipped to freezing.

Looking at the police log on Wednesday, police chief Dan Rossi said: “This happens every year at this time. People aren’t aware of the road conditions.” There were accidents on Old County Road, North Road and across the town. “It was the weather conditions,” he said.

In Oak Bluffs, the driver of a pickup truck was taken to the hospital, after he lost control and his vehicle hit a tree on County Road after 3 p.m.

A rash of false burgler alarms were tricked by the storm. All the down-Island police departments had their fill of calls from the county communication center.

A drive along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in the thick of the storm was slow, with visibility just 100 feet.

Pairs of snowplowing trucks drove together, one behind the other, to get the best coverage.

Snow-covered tree limbs started coming down when the wind arrived late in the afternoon. Some falling branches caused power outages.

A total of 4,200 customers, mostly in the three down-Island towns, were without power at different times during the night on the Vineyard for a varying number of reasons, according to Michael Durand, spokesman for the NStar. In most cases it was related to either falling or heavily-laden tree branches which caused sparks to fly.

In anticipation of the storm, NStar brought in two tree crews and three extra contract line crews to augment their Island work force.

By late Sunday evening, the snow changed back to rain. The whole Vineyard was washed with rain.

After midnight there was no rain, just high winds and rising tides. Beach Road in downtown Vineyard Haven became one large puddle of melted snow.

A raging Nantucket Sound brought huge seas to the Joseph A. Sylvia State Beach. The boiling water moved sand. The Little Bridge (VFW Memorial Bridge) channel is now nearly completely filled with sand. Only a brook allows for an exchange of water to and from Sengekontacket Pond. Harthaven harbor is completely shut off from the sound by sand in the channel.

By Monday morning, all roads up-Island were clear of snow and tree limbs. Most mailboxes lining those rural roads had their lids open. A few mailboxes didn’t make it, and were either knocked over or were lying on the ground.

The Gay Head Lighthouse was extinguished for most of Monday, though the lamps continued to spin. Aides to Navigation Coast Guard personnel were sent over from Woods Hole to get the historic lighthouse red and white beacons relit.

Chief Jason Olsen of Menemsha Coast Guard station said the rare lighthouse outage was not weather related. The breaker had to be reset before the lighthouse was back in operation by nightfall. The station was staffed through the storm, the chief said, but fortunately the eight on duty there received no calls for help.

Seas crashing into Menemsha Beach seemed as large as they get. The town parking lot, completely empty of vehicles, was constantly rained on by high-spraying seas.

The Vineyard hasn’t seen this kind of wind since there was a passing hurricane last September.

Phil Hale said his wind anemometer recorded a high of 67 m.p.h. On Monday afternoon, Mr. Hale reported sustained winds of 45 with a few gusts to 55.

The Martha’s Vineyard Airport barometer recorded the size of the storm. In a span of 12 hours, the barometric pressure dropped a full inch, to a low of 28.61 inches by 6 a.m. Monday morning. In that hour there was hardly a breeze. For the rest of Monday, the pressure rose almost as quickly and the winds returned.

The center of the storm, the calm within the storm, passed 30 miles east of Nantucket, according to Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

Mr. Simpson said meteorologists are still collating their numbers for the record books. Boston got 18.2 inches of snow. “It may be one of the top 10 snow producers in Boston history,” he said. There was a report of a wind gust to 80 m.p.h. in Wellfleet.

The forecast for this weekend is substantially better: The first days of the New Year may bring a January thaw.