More strong Southeast winds overnight Saturday brought their share of troubles for the Island, including road closures from coastal flooding, scattered outages, and more erosion on South-facing beaches.
As Tisbury officials warned, Five Corners flooded again. Tisbury Police announced online on Saturday morning that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation was notified, and asked drivers to seek other routes. Bus routes and ambulances were diverted around Five Corners.
Photos obtained by The Times also show significant erosion at Chilmark’s Lucy Vincent and Squibnocket beaches.
And Edgartown’s South Beach area was impacted for a third time. Edgartown officials on Wednesday announced they would be seeking state funding for relief from the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency.
“A culvert on Right Fork failed,” town administrator James Hagerty told The Times on Tuesday. “[There was] significant erosion on South Beach. It’s pretty evident if you go down there — you can see how the shoreline’s kind of changed.”
The culvert requires immediate attention, the town manager said, though he added that erosion there has long been a concern.
“I think that the big question right now is what we’re going to do about that Right Fork culvert, and how it’s going to be repaired,” Hagerty said. “Long-term [planning] is difficult, because we know that there’s been erosion that’s gone on. The past five, 10 years have been pretty significant.”
Hagerty also thinks that at some point during his lifetime, Atlantic Drive might be moved in order to adapt to the erosion risk.
On Saturday, the Dukes County Emergency Management Association warned that Beach Road in Oak Bluffs and Dock Street in Edgartown were closed.
Also, the Chappy Ferry was temporarily unavailable for much of the day. Most Steamship Authority trips on Saturday morning were canceled, as well as some afternoon trips.
There was little power disruption on the Island from the storm. Two outages, one in Tisbury and another in Edgartown, were reported, and impacted fewer than 20 customers.