After drying out from a storm earlier this week, another gale hit the Island Saturday, canceling ferries and causing some flooding.
Five Corners, Dock Street in Edgartown, and Beach Road in Oak Bluffs were all flooded after the overnight storm brought rain and strong winds.
“Some vehicles have suffered permanent damage when air intakes pulled salt water into the engine, creating a costly repair you should want to avoid,” the Dukes County Emergency Management Association wrote in a plea for drivers to avoid the flooded Five Corners. “Unless it is an emergency, there should be no reason to be risking a drive through here during a high-water event.”
By early afternoon, the rain had abated, bringing curious beachgoers to see how the Island’s south shore had held up after getting whacked in two previous southerly storms this winter.
Officials asked people to avoid Five Corners in Vineyard Haven.
— Mark Alan Lovewell
About 20 vehicles were parked at Lucy Vincent Beach in Chilmark around 1 p.m. and their passengers took in the erosion that had flattened much of the sandy shore and exposed long-buried rocks.
The breach at Squibnocket Beach in Chilmark into Squibnocket Pond was still open, though water wasn’t constantly flowing in and out as it had earlier this winter.
Atlantic Drive remained closed and Edgartown officials planned to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss how to handle the erosion from at South Beach.
The Martha’s Vineyard Coastal Observatory off South Beach reported waves of about 11 feet high early Saturday, about 7 feet shorter than those that had rolled in on Tuesday.
A buoy further offshore between the Vineyard and Block Island reported waves of about 14 feet high.
Parts of Menemsha were inundated in Saturday’s storm.
— Tim Johnson
There were some scattered power outages Saturday, but as of 4 p.m. Saturday, there were fewer than five customers without power across the entire Island.
The National Weather Service had placed the Island under a wind advisory until 7 p.m. Sunday. Dukes County could see winds between 25 and 35 miles per hour and gusts up to 50 miles per hour.
High winds were predicted to pick up Sunday afternoon into early evening.
