Two tents used to cover building materials at the Boch Park construction site on Beach Road in Vineyard Haven were blown from their tie-downs around 1:30 pm Friday, sending one tent across to the other side of the park, and another tent careening into the shorebreak by the Gannon and Benjamin boatyard.
Workers were on the scene immediately prior to the tents being blown away by the powerful gusts, but left the area beforehand, and no one was injured.
Boatyard employees attempted to fish out one of the tents from the water with a motorboat, but to no avail.
One Boch Park worker said he left immediately before the gusts reached their strongest. He said the wind was so strong that it toppled a table covered in heavy stone blocks that were being used to construct a semicircular wall at the front of the property.
As the worker attempted to restack some of the blocks and secure the remaining tables and tents with additional tie-downs, he said, “it’s only going to get worse; I’m just going to hope for the best.”
According to the worker, the tent that is in the water has been secured with ropes so they don’t drift further into the surf: “We are just going to have to fight to get that tent back once this all calms down.”
He also said he expects the fences sequestering the construction site from Beach Road could possibly blow down as well: “There’s not much more we can do at this point. If it goes, it goes.”
The National Weather Service in Taunton reported a wind gust of 64 mph in Woods Hole, and a travel advisory issued by the Steamship Authority early Friday morning alerted Islanders of a high wind warning from 2 pm to 10 pm. Multiple ferries have already been cancelled.
According to public relations assistance for the Dukes County Sheriff’s Office, Heather Arpin, an arcing wire was reported in Tisbury, but was handled immediately by police, and no one was injured.
oh well, a few tents blow off a construction site on the vineyard with 60 mph wind gusts .
Meanwhile, on the southern border, a section of border wall that cost about $ 30 million tax dollars a mile blew over in winds of about 35 mph.
No problem, Mr. Boch. carry on
.
“Bad humor is an evasion of reality; good humor is an acceptance of it.”
— Malcolm Muggeridge
Yes, it is true, the usual suspects can alway attach something political to an accident caused by nature.
Whats next? OH, I know… It is all the fault of global warming.
view– Am I correct in my assumption that I am “the usual suspect” ?
Excuse me if it’s “political” to note that trump’s ” big beautiful impenetrable wall” that he recently refereed to with this comment : “This wall is not something that can be really knocked down.” ( his bad grammar, not mine)
“But wind gusts that reached as high as 37 mph on Wednesday, proved too much for Trump’s “very powerful, very powerful wall.”
So let me ask about what you mean by “an accident caused by nature.”
If you just had a new house built, and 37 mph winds tore the roof off, and blew the windows out, would you not blame the contractor for the damage ?
Come on, View– trump told us about how he was building a great impenetrable wall, and it blows over in 37 mph winds ?
That’s not an ‘accident of nature” , That’s human incompetence . To not put the responsibility for such shoddy construction on the person responsible is “political” .
You can be sure that if Hillary were president , and building anything that failed under normal circumstances ( 37 mph winds are normal, and have nothing to do with climate change) you would be screaming about her incompetence . That’s political
And just so you know, the actual wind force to dislodge Mr Boch’s tents was over 3 times what it took to blow down trump’s wall.
What do you think it will cost to take that section of wall out, and try again ?
it has to be on the order of 10- 20 million dollars.
And do you think Mexico is going to pay for that ?
I think Mexico should confiscate the steel that is on their side of the border, and demand compensation for the damaged trees.
“… he recently refereed…”
I had no idea President Trump was a referee. Interesting. Which sport?!! NYUK NYUK
Hope this helps :-^
Sunshine You are correct trump is not a referee, and I am not perfect.
Good catch 🙂
Oh, thank goodness it’s no longer all President Obama’s fault anymore!
dondondon. You of great research and facts neglected to tell us that the concrete making up the foundation of the wall was not yet set when the big winds came along. That would make a difference would it not?
Andrew– you would think a guy who “knows everything ” about concrete would hire only “the best people” to build his all important wall.
I am in construction and I know that you always keep an eye on the weather. If the contractors don’t have enough sense to know the weather forecast, do not know about the properties of the concrete they are working with, or do not know how to properly brace a section of wall while the concrete sets up, I guess it’s just another trump fiasco. Oh, but not really trump’s fault. It was probably an illegal liberal worker who forgot to put the braces on. Or perhaps they put the braces on, and Hillary cut them off when no one was looking.
But in the big picture, I guess the DNC can’t count to 10, and trump can’t properly build a wall . What are they gonna do when they get to the door ? Trust me, doors are harder to build.. Not only do they have to open, but they also have to close.. Tough stuff if you don’t know what a brace is. But no problem, we will just back charge Mexico for it.
andrew– As you say, nothing is by chance – it is all driven by the heavenly hand of god.
It’s pretty obvious that god didn’t like this section of wall. If the concrete had been set, she would have made a wind strong enough to blow it down anyway.
Didn’t you ever hear the story of the tower of babble ? Genesis 11:1
God doesn’t like it when we think we can do things without her blessing. She clearly states that we should love all her people and all her creation. Clearly not something trump and his supporters subscribe to. Lucky for us, she only blew a small part of the wall down, and didn’t do something like take away our ability to draw.
We got the warning– She has spoken, and we better listen.
props to the guy filming this instead of going out there and trying to remedy the situation, a true hero
Edg — what do you think the photographer could have done?
It must be the dead of winter on the island if this article gets So many posts already.
Bad weather, high winds, tent flying across the harbor… the only thing missing was a Douglas bouncing along behind it.
To the usual suspect that rants political about every topic: Yes it is time to go outside and enjoy what life has to offer. Being so opinionated and angry is not a way to keep one’s blood pressure down.
Walk away from the keyboard and take a breath. No one wants to hear you rant about any political party you find so dear (or not so dear)
Time for a hobby