We buy insurance for our cars, our properties, our lives — all of it important protection and none of it we ever want to use.

On Friday, August 20, Islanders spent much of the day preparing for Hurricane Henri, because forecasts said it could make landfall in Rhode Island, which put Martha’s Vineyard in the direct path of the storm’s damaging 70-plus-mph winds on Sunday. Harbormasters told mariners to pull boats, reservations were canceled, the Steamship Authority added a couple of ferries for people who wanted to leave, and people lined up to buy fuel.

At the same time, Eversource, a company we love to hate, sent a brigade of utility trucks to the Island and joined emergency responders in getting ready for what Henri might bring. We were even paid a visit by Tisbury Fire Chief Greg Leland in our Beach Road offices. Chief Leland went door-to-door on Beach Road alerting us to the likelihood that our building would flood should Henri’s predicted storm surge come to fruition.

We know now that all the preparations we made were ultimately not necessary. Henri did, indeed, make landfall in Rhode Island after flirting with a shift further west, but it came ashore as a tropical storm. We had less than an inch of rain, and blustery winds enough to take out a beloved tree in Oak Bluffs, but little more. The pounding surf did cause a fair amount of erosion, but it could have been much, much worse. (See our story on the 30th anniversary of Hurricane Bob, the last hurricane to make landfall in the Northeast.)

Our one nitpick from Henri is that the Island does need to work on how to improve the flow of traffic when ferry service reopens after boats are canceled for most of a day. The traffic gridlock at Five Corners could have become a public safety concern had there been an emergency.

We are getting a sad look at just how devastating a hurricane can be. New Orleans, 16 years to the day Hurricane Katrina hit, is once again picking up the pieces from a monster storm.

Forecasters never get it right, until they do. Rejoice in the fact that this time what occurred on the Vineyard was far milder than what could have been.

And let’s never get complacent when it comes to being prepared.