During the day and into the night, trucks barreled through Vineyard roads to plow slippery roads after heavy amounts of snow fell on the Island, the most it’s seen in years. From town employees to freelance plow drivers, a determined, collective effort was undertaken during and after the snowstorm a couple of weeks ago to clean up the Island enough to allow for safe transportation.
Some Islanders were trapped by the heavy snowfall, and snowplow drivers made a heroic, tireless effort to free the community onto the road.
“I think Edgartown looks really good,” Edgartown Town Administrator James Hagerty said in a Monday meeting in praise of his town’s highway department for clearing the roads of snow.
Hagerty said the town had around 10 pieces of equipment out on the streets, including plows, sanders, and dump trucks. And while it isn’t fully clear how many subcontractors were out plowing the roads, their efforts helped keep everyone safe.
It’s not just Edgartown. Main roadways on the Island, for the most part, were cleared almost immediately, and the rest were rid of snow not long after. And as households were trapped by the snow that piled high in their driveways with some Islanders searching for last-minute help, snowplow drivers came to the rescue. Chris Mayhew and Matteus Scheffer stopped by a house on Tabor House Road in Chilmark and helped free a family there, as did Bettencourts, a landscaping service company, in Edgartown, who were booked out by those looking to clear snow from their homes. We can’t name them all, but many drivers worked tirelessly through the nights to plow the roads.
Of course, we can’t forget the various other services and Islanders who stepped up to help their neighbors. Warming centers were opened to supply reprieve from the cold, Harbor Homes provided some Islanders refuge from the elements, and others took time to shovel the driveways of neighbors in a spontaneous expression of generosity and spreading of goodwill. First responders diligently supplied guidance ahead of the storm, and helped cars that were stuck.
While those who helped during and after the storm deserve to be praised, the storm is also a cautionary tale to be prepared for extreme weather events, especially for people who had difficulty getting their driveways cleared themselves. And people seem to have taken it to heart, with Shirley’s True Value Hardware Store selling hundreds of shovels so far this year, and even selling out of ice melt, although they were able to restock. An orange sign on the door on Saturday, just hours before the second of the two storms was about to descend, read: “Sold Out of Ice Melt.” Other hardware stores, like Granite Stores of MV and Edgartown Hardware, experienced similar supply issues. And for Edgartown Hardware, there may be no more rock salt for a while, because its distributor ran out of product.
This may not be the only snowstorm we experience this winter, so let’s remember that as we enter February, the Island is a unique place of finite area and resources, and while weather can surprise us and force us to re-evaluate how prepared we are, the Island is not short of people who are willing to help.