The Steamship Authority has issued a weather alert on its website for late Saturday into Sunday morning.
“The National Weather Service forecast calls for high winds on Saturday night through early Sunday morning that has the potential to cause service disruptions,” the SSA site states.
National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Simpson said the Vineyard might see gusts of up to 50 miles per hour. Simpson didn’t think a lot of outages were likely. “Widespread? I would not think so. Potential for isolated outages, sure,” he said.
Eversource has announced that it will be sending crews to the Island in preparation for potential tree damage and power outages.
“We are monitoring several forecasts as this storm approaches the region with the potential to bring damaging wind, heavy rain, and snow to parts of Massachusetts, and taking proactive steps to ensure that we’re ready to respond to and restore any potential power outages as quickly as safely possible for our customers,” Chris McKinnon, a spokesman for Eversource, wrote in an email. “.As the storm’s track and impacts become clearer over the next 24 hours, we will adjust staffing needs as necessary, including securing additional outside resources. We are pre-positioning our crews strategically on Cape Cod ahead of the storm, and extra line and tree crews are arriving on Martha’s Vineyard.”
According to McKinnon, customers should make sure devices are fully charged, and any necessities are on hand in case of an outage. If any customer needs to report an outage during the storm or needs to reach us for any other reason, they should call 1-800-592-2000 in Eastern Massachusetts or visit Eversource.com, he wrote.
I wonder what the picture and the caption have to do with wind. Not a word about it in the article.
Perhaps the wind will blow sand over the end of the already nearly buried outfall pipe ?
The weather service is predicting about 1/4 inch of rain.
Are we to assume that beach road will flood due to clogged outfall pipes ?
When I talked to Kirk Metell at the public works dept, a while ago, he said he would like to extend them into the water so this didn’t happen, but funding was not there for it.
If flooding along Beach road and 5 corners can be reduced by extending the outfall pipes, that project should be moved up on the priority list. One would also assume the town has to unclog them every time there is a significant weather event.
Something seems off here.
Some people watch the Weather Channel for forecasts. We know there’s a storm coming when the Tisbury DPW sends a backhoe to move sand away from these outfall pipes.
Wind on MV isn’t news, perhaps write a story when the wind doesn’t blow? It would be much less work.