Remnants of the year’s worst hurricane passed over the Vineyard last night, delivering both high winds and rain. Hurricane Floyd, a storm that formed in the tropical waters of the Atlantic, began disrupting life on the Island days before it arrived.
It happened again to the Vineyard. New England’s second tropical hurricane, with the code name Edna, struck the Island with its full force on Saturday, inflicted some further damage although not nearly so great as the first storm of the season, and left much restoration work to be begun all over again.
The Vineyard’s third hurricane roared over the Island Tuesday, reached the high mark of a flood sea in some places exceeding that of 1938, and left a scene of destruction as the wind abated and the seas fell. The high of the tidal flood came about noon. All the serious damage was inflicted between mid-morning and a little past noon.
The back road between Edgartown and Vineyard Haven seemed to have weathered the storm pretty well, bordered by sturdy scrub oak. However, as the road nears Vineyard Haven, the taller trees in the vicinity took a severe beating and consequently, so did the power lines.
On Tuesday night it blew a violent gale from the southeast, for about ten hours. The U. States schr. Gallatin in attempting to get to the wharf, was driven on shore; her tender, the Gazelle, was driven high and dry upon the beach, and nearly all the copper on her starboard side washed off. The smack Bruce, in coming into the harbor, dropt her anchor, but as we understand did not have her cable secured, and consequently, went ashore between Coffin’s and Commercial wharf. She got off without much damage, yesterday.
It was the Vineyard’s first resort season hurricane and Edgartown harbor paid dearly for its popularity Monday afternoon.
The last great tropical storm to wrack the Edgartown harborfront came in 1944. Then, the town was still mostly a fishing village, and the lumber on the beaches was made up of timber piers and the shacks of working men.
Martha’s Vineyard awoke on Friday morning to witness such a scene of destruction and wreckage as the Island never saw before. This is the literal truth, since never before has the Island owned so much property along the shores and waterfronts, susceptible to damage by sea and tide.
Wednesday, September 8th, will ever be memorable from the fact of the furious gale of wind which raged in this section of the country. In fact, the newspapers all agree that it was the most fearful “blow-out” old Boreas has had since the historic September gale of 1815; and they all with one accord, express the hope that our land may never again be visited with such another powerful manifestation of strength and fury of the elements.
The terrific north-easterly storm which swept the eastern Massachusetts coast on Tuesday was felt with unusual severity on the Vineyard. The wind for an hour or two, from three to five o’clock in the afternoon, blowing with hurricane force and leaving various forms of wreckage in its wake.
Saturday night and most of Sunday the fiercest storm in many years prevailed over the northern and eastern part of the country.
The damage by the storm will aggregate several millions of dollars along the entire New England coast, not to mention the loss inland. Sea-faring men declare that not in the last half century has there been a gale so severe to shipping interests as this.
