Record
blizzard drops two feet of snow
January 27, 2005
A patron considered each step carefully leaving the Black
Dog Bakery on Water Street in Tisbury. Photos by Ralph Stewart
Jesse Chandler of Edgartown helped her dad Chris shovel snow
from in front of the Beach House on Main Street in Vineyard
Haven Monday.
Dale McClure of Watercourse Construction hauled Bruce Davies'
schooner Estrella into deeper water Tuesday. Estrella broke
free of her mooring in Sunday's blow and ended up on the sandbar
just south of the Steamship Authority wharf in Vineyard Haven.
Photo by Ezra Blair
Photo by Ralph Stewart
Photo by Amy M. Williams
Photo
by Amy M. Williams |
Sunday’s
powerful blizzard dropped roughly two feet of snow on Martha’s
Vineyard, while winds gusting to hurricane force drove at least
two large sailboats ashore and toppled trees or at least tree limbs
causing electric power interruptions, especially along Lambert’s
Cove Road. Temperatures during and after the Sunday blast were in
the single digits and teens, and schools were closed the first three
days of the week, while social and government meetings were canceled
or postponed.
And yesterday, temperatures warmed to freezing as snow began to
fall again. Forecasters predicted as much as 10 additional inches
by sunrise today.
Islanders expect snow in January, just not this much, not in record
amounts that create mountainous drifts, leave driveways impassable
and unplowable and produce towering mounds of snow along roads and
in parking lots. Finding a place to put the shoveled and plowed
snow proved a headache for school leaders and other public officials.
The storm system that caused the blizzard was large and powerful.
According to wunderground.com, an online weather service, the barometric
pressure plummeted from 30.29 inches to 29.58 inches on Saturday
as the system rolled in over the Island. Wind speeds continued to
rise throughout the day on Saturday reaching gusts of over 40 miles
per hour. As the storm intensified over night and into Sunday, the
snow became heavier and wind speeds reached 46 miles per hour, with
gusts over 60. By Monday the storm had dropped about two feet of
snow on the Vineyard, but the howling winds cause the snow to drift,
making it much deeper in some places.
Sunday’s one and only grace note, as the blizzard raged, was
the reliable delivery of electricity to most Vineyard NSTAR customers,
so most Islanders who wanted to watch the Patriot’s football
game could do so. Despite the powerful winds, most of the Island
did not experience sustained power outages.
Christian McKenna, spokesman for NSTAR, said that the only significant
power outages occurred where trees fell onto power lines in several
places. Such outages were reported on Chappaquiddick and in West
Tisbury.
Ms. McKenna said most of the Island was back to full power Tuesday
morning. One of the last places to regain power was a section of
Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury where residents did not
have electricity until Tuesday evening.
Ms. McKenna said NSTAR had extra crews working around the clock
during the storm, but that unplowed roads made getting to some locations
difficult.
“Impassible roads were by far our biggest obstacle on the Island,”
she said.
The dangerous road conditions also led to a driving ban during the
peak of the storm, although there was some confusion among Island
police this week about who implemented the ban.
School shuts down
Students celebrated the unusually heavy snowfall and the three days
off that resulted. But the unexpected vacation will exact a price
on the backside of the school year when temperatures will be considerably
warmer. The school calendar includes just five snow days built in.
In the event of no snow cancellations, school ends five days earlier
than the scheduled last day. As of yesterday, in light of this week’s
cancellations, school will end on Monday, June 27.
Yesterday, the school superintendent’s office was closed. Reached
at his home, Ed Jerome, Edgartown School principal, explained the
decision to close school for three days. Mr. Jerome said the decision
was made in consultation with bus drivers and town highway officials.
The top consideration is the safety of school children, he said.
Although main roads have been cleared, many side roads and driveways
are still clogged, making it difficult for children to walk to their
local bus stop. In addition towering drifts and piles of snow make
standing at some bus stops quite risky.
Mr. Jerome said town crews have been working around the clock to
clear school lots and bus stops, but the job is daunting. “Everybody
is trying their best, but when it comes to the kids, it is safety
first,” he said.
Police kept busy
While Island police said the blizzard kept them busy throughout
the weekend and into this week, they reported few major incidents
or injuries.
Theodore Saulnier, Tisbury police chief, said that as of Tuesday
morning his department had received 50 calls for service. “They
ranged from everything form elderly people who were snowbound in
their homes, to cars stuck in the snow, to car accidents, to medical
emergencies,” he said. “I think that a lot of credit should
go to the emergency personnel who were out there handling this storm.
They did a tremendous job.”
While not directly related to the storm itself, Chief Saulnier said
a teenage girl injured her knee and possibly her back while sledding
at the Tashmoo overlook on Tuesday. The chief offered a safety reminder.
“When you get on any kind of snow sled or tube and start heading
down a hill you have to be careful that no people are on the hill,
and what’s on the hill surface, and also what’s at bottom.
You can reach pretty good speeds, and you have to be careful,”
he said.
Other Island towns reported similarly busy days, but also without
any major incidents. In Oak Bluffs, where police answered 65 calls
for service, town leaders activated the town’s emergency management
plan on Saturday, which brought together, police, fire, ambulance,
highway, and other town officials into a single command center.
Erik Blake, Oak Bluffs police chief, said that by working together
the town departments helped each other get through the most difficult
challenges.
“It got to the point during the storm where if we had a call
we had to send out a front-end loader, a 4x4 police vehicle with
an EMT, and the ambulance all together to get through the snow.
It was a real cooperative effort on the part of all the departments,”
he said.
Edgartown police Sergeant Tony Bettencourt said, “Things went
really smoothly here in Edgartown, considering the weather. We were
prepared for it. We had extra people on every shift, but it really
wasn’t needed.”
Sergeant Bettencourt said police were kept busy with several false
fire alarms and minor motor vehicle incidents. He said hurricane
force winds also knocked out power on Chappaquiddick for most of
the day on Sunday.
Beth Toomey, West Tisbury police chief, said that long Lambert’s
Cove Road power outage, there were many other calls for service.
A Tri-Town ambulance responded to a crash on Edgartown–West
Tisbury Road, just past the airport. The driver of a small snowplow
equipped vehicle rear-ended a large state snowplow. The driver of
the smaller truck was transported to the hospital.
Unable to move the pickup truck to the side of the road, Chief Toomey
said that a front-end loader was required to push the truck aside
so that plows could pass. On Tuesday afternoon, just the roof of
the truck was visible from beneath a massive snowdrift on the side
of the road.
“It was a very dangerous storm. On Saturday night you couldn’t
see a plow truck until you were five feet away from it,” said
Chief Toomey.
In addition to the many emergency calls, Island towns were also
called upon to transport “essential personnel” including
hospital and communications center employees to and from work.
SSA loses a day
The biggest challenge faced by the Steamship Authority (SSA) as
a result of Sunday’s massive storm was clearing snow from parking
lots and vessels.
The SSA cancelled its last two trips from Woods Hole to the Vineyard
Saturday night. SSA service did not resume again until the 8:15
am trip Monday leaving the Vineyard.
Phil Parent, SSA director of human resources, said the standby backlog
was cleared up relatively quickly, and operations went smoothly.
Mr. Parent said people planning to travel were well aware of the
dimensions of the storm, and that appeared to help.
Traffic was light on Monday. The freight boat Sankaty was delayed
until some crewmembers, who had difficulty getting to work along
snow-clogged roads, arrived and cleared the freight deck of snow.
“We had some very dedicated and hard working employees both
at terminals and on the vessels which allowed us to get back to
work quickly,” said Mr. Parent.
Airport socked in, lends a hand
The wind and snow, which led to whiteout conditions during the blizzard,
forced the Martha’s Vineyard Airport to close Saturday evening.
The massive amounts of snow on the runways kept the airport closed
until Tuesday morning.
Bill Weibrecht, airport manager, said that snow removal was been
the biggest challenge.
“I think it is definitely the worst conditions that the airport
has ever experienced, but there was no major damage, just a lot
of snow to be moved,” he said.
Mr. Weibrecht said that a massive snow blower that attaches to a
front-end loader helped move snow more efficiently. He said that
despite being a bit outdated, the giant contraption can move 1,200
tons of snow an hour.
Despite giant snow piles still waiting to be moved, airport officials
lent the giant snow blower to state highway officials to help move
a snowdrift across part of Edgartown-West Tisbury road. The snow
had blown across the airport property and out onto the road, causing
drifts as high as 10 feet, and limiting the road to a single lane
of traffic.
In about an hour and half, the giant snow blower, with the help
of two front-end loaders had eaten its way through the massive snow
banks, returning the road to two lanes. Traffic on Edgartown-West
Tisbury Road was stopped for extended periods while the work went
on.
Edward Panek, state highway department foreman on-Island, oversaw
the cleanup on West Tisbury Road. He said he hadn’t seen a
storm so severe in his 20 years working for the state.
“This was the worst storm I have ever seen,” he said.
Mr. Panek thanked the airport employees for their help and commended
the state contract employees who helped with the snow removal for
a job well done.
In a Letter to the Editor on page 13 this morning, Mr. Panek writes,
“Words alone will never thank you all for the stamina, commitment
and expertise you all showed, and you should be proud of what you
have accomplished.”
Red Cross pitches in
The Martha’s Vineyard Chapter of the American Red Cross prepared
for the storm by supplying the West Tisbury school with 100 cots,
blankets, and food staffed by David Grunden, Barbara Child and Ed
Child. Volunteers Tad and Judy Crawford skied to the school to offer
assistance.
No one showed up at the shelter Saturday and only five persons accepted
the offered emergency hospitality on Sunday: three from Lambert’s
Cove, two from Aquinnah.
As the amount of drifting snow made travel more and more hazardous,
an Edgartown facility, the Clarion Hotel, was designated as an alternate
shelter. One person was taken to the Clarion.
Travel difficulties made it problematic for persons to reach the
designated shelters, including teams of persons to relieve the Red
Cross personnel at the West Tisbury School, according to Deborah
Medders, the Island’s Red Cross executive director,
According to a Red Cross volunteer, the sheltered and shelter staff
were able to watch the Patriots vs. Steelers football game and kept
warm eating chili and beef stew.
Officials considered evacuating the Chappy population because electric
power was out for an extended period, but NSTAR personnel restored
power in time too make evacuation unnecessary.
A close call for one boat
Bruce Davies’ robust, 47-foot schooner Estrella went ashore
Sunday on the sandbar just south of the steamship wharf in Vineyard
Haven. Estrella had been moored in the southern part of the mooring
field behind the Vineyard Haven breakwater. She remained partly
afloat and partly aground through Monday, her masts and square yard
angling out over the water toward the southeast. Tuesday afternoon
Dale McClure of Watercourse Construction hauled Estrella off the
bar on the high tide. Despite her adventure, Estrella was back at
her mooring Wednesday prepared for the next round of nasty weather.
And during the teeth of the gale, Gary Maynard’s Violet, also
on a mooring behind the breakwater, dragged over to the Coastwise
Packet Company dock, where both ketch and dock were damaged before
Violet was returned to calmer water in the mooring field.
Nelson Sigelman and Ezra Blair contributed reporting to this
account.
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