Ferries were running again Saturday morning after a prolonged gale battered Martha’s Vineyard for three straight days. Ferry service to the Island was suspended all day Thursday and Friday.

After a month of storms, Islanders are reflecting on how they fared and looking ahead to how they can be better prepared for when the next one comes.

Small pockets of the Island remained without Thursday after a March blizzard lashed the Vineyard with high winds and heavy, wet snow.

The Vineyard was a scene of flooded roads and docks, eroded shorelines, beached sailboats and downed trees on Saturday.

A ferocious northeast storm lashed the Vineyard with heavy rains and hurricane-force winds Friday, flooding roads, battering coastlines and cancelling ferries for the day.

Rain and wind lashed the Vineyard for a second straight day Thursday as tropical storm Jose churned seas. Ferries are cancelled.

Roads flooded and lightning struck in more than one place when a line of severe squalls raced through the Vineyard Wednesday morning.

Batteries, bread, shovels and gas were in hot demand Monday as Islanders prepared for the winter storm expected to hit the Island Monday evening. "It's like a summer day," said Shirley's Hardware employee Debbie Healy.

The Vineyard spent Wednesday digging out from the winter gale that battered the Island all day Tuesday. Schools remained closed on Thursday as highway workers and private contractors planned to spend another day clearing snow from roadways.

Oct. 29 marks the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Had she headed 200 miles farther north of her Atlantic City-area landfall and then taken a left, we’d still be dealing with the havoc left in her wake.