Remember to attend the Chappaquiddick Island Association’s sponsored forum on Saturday, August 19 from 9 to 11 a.m. The focus will be on the barrier beaches. Darci Schofield of The Trustees of Reservations will be speaking.

The next forum will be on Thursday, August 24 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The leadership team of the Chappaquiddick Community Emergency Response Team will present an update of their plans to assist Chappaquiddickers during times of emergency.

These meetings will be held in-person at the Chappy Community Center. Hopefully Zoom attendance will also be possible in the future. More forums to be held in September will be announced at a later date.

Hurricane season is not quite half over yet. Keep an eye on the National Hurricane Center website to get the earliest warnings of storms forming. There are two likely spots far over in the Atlantic at the moment. If they developed into dangerous storms, they would take a week and a half to get here. In recent years, the hurricanes that have impacted Martha’s Vineyard have been spawned closer to the U.S. coast. We usually have only five days to prepare.

Before the Katama breach, flooding of Dock street was a common occurrence during the mildest gales. Even on a sunny day, people sometimes had to slosh through half a foot of water going down the ferry ramp on the town side. Since the breach occurred, the harbor water has only lapped at the pavement. With the last couple of northeasters, coastal flooding was predicted to be up to two feet. We prepared for it but the surge never appeared. It seems that the breach is a big leak that keeps the storm tide from piling up in Katama Bay. With all of the destructive aspects of a breach there is at least that one benefit.