The Vineyard was spared major damage from the daylong blizzard that swept across the Island Saturday, town and emergency managers said.
Speaking to the Gazette by phone and and via email Sunday, all praised the storm response, describing police, fire and emergency responders who answered calls, shoveled people out and even delivered a meal to a stranded homeowner. They credited Eversource and highway crews for their around-the-clock work, and called it a good practice run as the Island hones its preparedness for weather emergencies.
“It dusted off the cobwebs,” Edgartown town administrator James Hagerty told the Gazette Sunday.
“We fared really well,” said Tisbury fire chief and emergency manager Greg Leland.
At day’s end Sunday, Eversource crews were still at work restoring power in a few isolated areas, including on Chappaquiddick, which was the hardest hit by the storm. Chappy was in a total blackout for more than 24 hours.
The cause was a main power line that went down, Mr Hagerty said.
“We had some significant outages on Chappy; yesterday, a primary one down in the middle of the road,” he said, recounting efforts to coordinate Eversource and the Chappy ferry.
Without power overnight, an emergency shelter was set up at the Chappy firehouse, coordinated by fire chief Alex Schaeffer, but in the end it was not needed, Mr. Hagerty said.
Edgartown police Sgt. Michael Snowden said Chappaquiddick was a primary focus for the department during the storm. Det. Curtis Chandler, a Chappy resident, played a key role, Sergeant Snowden said, responding to calls for service, making checks on people and even cooking a meal and delivering it to a resident who had no cooking facility with the power out.
The ferry ran on an emergency basis, and a small number of residents made the crossing to Edgartown to spend the night in the town shelter at the school, according to harbor master Charlie Blair.
The storm packed high winds of up to 65 miles per hour, as reported by the National Weather Service. NWS cooperative weather stations in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven reported total snowfall of 10 inches and 12 inches respectively.
Heavy drifting made accumulations far higher in places.
The storm was officially categorized as a blizzard by the NWS in six commonwealth communities, including Martha’s Vineyard (the others were Boston, Worcester, Beverly, Hyannis and Marshfield).
The weather service defines a blizzard as three consecutive hours of falling and/or blowing snow that reduces visibility to below a quarter mile with winds that frequently gust to 35 miles per hour or more.
In Vineyard Haven harbor the schooner Tangier owned by Carlton Sprague broke her mooring and went aground in the rocky shoreline on Beach Road near the height of the storm.
Tisbury harbor master John Crocker said efforts to refloat the vessel were postoned Sunday because the schooner had taken on water, but would resume Monday at high tide after Tangier was pumped out.
Remarkably, it was the lone incident on Tisbury waterways, the harbor master said.
“[It went] amazingly well. I’m not aware of any other issues,” he said.
Mr. Leland echoed the remarks, noting that emergency responders were kept busy with numerous calls, including motorists stuck on secondary roads.
Warming shelters were opened in every Island town and used by a handful of residents.
Oak Bluffs town administrator Deborah Potter said in an email that a family of four including a baby in a crib made use of the warming shelter at Oak Bluffs School overnight. They were the only people to use the shelter, she said.
“They have power back today and already headed home, so the shelter was closed this morning,” Ms. Potter wrote.
In Aquinnah town clerk Gabriella Camilleri supervised the shelter at the town hall.
She said there were few visitors, but opening the shelter was good dry run for storms down the line.
“We’re happy that we were not needed and we’re prepared for future storms,” Ms. Camilleri said. “It was a very, very good practice run.”
The Harbor Homes overnight winter shelter, which recently relocated to Community Services, had 12 guests Saturday night, according to shelter manager Lisa Belcastro.
“It was great and peaceful and cozy and we never lost power,” Ms. Belcastro said.
There was widespread praise for Eversource crews, staged up-Island and down throughout the storm.
Mr. Blair described a scene Sunday morning when the trucks packed the town parking lot at the finger piers at breakfastime.
“It was like the Eversource parking lot of the world. Dock Street [coffee shop] was open [and] every Eversource driver was there, every crew. It was full,” Mr. Blair said.
“They came to eat. There had to be 11 or 12 big trucks. I just couldn’t believe it,” he added.
“Eversource was really well prepared [and has been doing] tree work throughout the year,” Sergeant Snowden said. “We were lucky,” he added.
Mr. Leland concurred.
“I will say Eversource does a really good job staging resources on the Island ahead of storms,” he said.
“Now I’ve got to shovel myself out.”
Louisa Hufstader and Aidan Pollard contributed reporting.
Comments (7)
Comments
Comment policy »