In so many ways, Aquinnah came through the big storm comparatively easily. Few of us lost power. At our house, we not only had electricity, we had internet. We couldn’t make or receive phone calls, but we sent and received texts. We were warm and safe. We didn’t lose any of our big trees. I am profoundly grateful that we were spared in these ways. Like the rest of the Island, however, Aquinnah folks were left with huge piles and drifts of snow. For days, many were unable to leave their houses even if they dug out their driveways, because piles of snow from the big street plows had left them blocked in. Many were unable to dig out their driveways at all.
Meanwhile, throughout the night and for five days afterward, those with plows of any sort were doing what they could. Our son-in-law, Isaac Taylor, was one of these heroes. He worked from 4:30 or 5 in the morning until 6 at night. He came home wet and exhausted, shaking his head with worry about his equipment and about the folks he had not yet been able to reach. His trucks and a ditch witch, even an ATV, were all called into duty, fell apart one by one, and mostly got patched back together bit by bit in the early morning dark. He cut and hauled downed trees for people. He pulled a propane truck out of a ditch where it lay against a tree (no injuries reported, as far as we know). He plowed and plowed and plowed, and tried to get to everyone on his list and to everyone whose emergencies came to him. I know that he was only one of hundreds all over the Cape and the islands who were giving everything they had to help, but he was ours. A hero.
Up here in Aquinnah, even in normal times, it is a schlep to get to the next town down-Island. Given that State Road is our connecter, and that it is a two-lane, winding highway that passes over Herring Creek, our former emergency management director had always warned us that we should be prepared to be cut off from services for as long as three days. We came close this time. Roads were dangerous during this storm, and we were instructed to stay off them. Going to a shelter in West Tisbury would have been simply impossible for at least the first 24 hours, and still dangerous during the second. Our town needs to develop an emergency plan, so we are prepared for whatever comes at us next. We have a good start that was developed by Aquinnah CERT. Let’s build on that now.
As the ice melts, we will again be doing our outdoor stuff, and the ticks are a-waiting. On Thursday, March 12, at 4 pm, the Aquinnah library is sponsoring a talk by Patrick Roden-Reynolds, director of the Martha’s Vineyard Tick Program. This talk is focused on important prevention tactics to help keep you safe. Cleverly titled a “Tick Talk,” this is hoped to be the first of several informative tick-related events at the library.
The library is also hosting a talk by Shelley Edmundson of the M.V. Fishermen’s Preservation Trust, and our own striped bass fisherman Buddy Vanderhoop. This event, to be held on Saturday, March 14, at 3 pm, is to celebrate the release of “The Sea Table,” a cookbook featuring beautiful photography, stories from the fishermen who bring the ocean’s bounty to our tables, and local recipes.
Meanwhile, make your signs. Write to your legislators. Phone the White House. Say your prayers. Do whatever you can to try to stop this war. My heart breaks and my fury rises to think of yet another terrified populace, another ruined country, another set of our servicemen and -women in peril. We have been here before. We know what results, and how long those results last. We must stop this.
Birthday greetings this week go to Reed Vanderhoop on March 7, and to Lisa Vanderhoop and Ken Wentworth on March 13.