Powerful storm rips across island

Though technically not a nor'easter for Nantucket, a powerful storm packing southeast wind gusts up to 64 mph and 18- to 20-foot waves re-severed Esther Island from Smith's Point, knocked a Sheep Pond Road house onto the Madaket beach, toppled a massive elm on Broad Street and decimated erosion control structures on Baxter Road.

The map, above, show the spot at where the water broke through Smith's Point at about 5:30 p.m. on Monday. On 'Sconset bluff Tuesday, workers salvaged the erosion control structure torn up by the waves. While parts of the island were hit hard, the storm spared island boaters and commercial fishermen from peril, according to the U. S. Coast Guard at Station Brant Point.

It resulted from a low pressure system that moved up the Atlantic Seaboard and strengthened just south of Long Island, N.Y., said meteorologist Charlie Foley of the National Weather Service office in Taunton, Mass.

"It was a powerful storm, no doubt," Foley said. "It's an unusually strong storm for this time of year. Usually these storms are in the fall, generally September to November."

STEVE SHEPPARD/The Independent Which is why caretaker Jeremy Nelson did not expect to be hurriedly moving furniture Monday night out of two houses at 25 Sheep Pond Road that he watches for owner Charlie Warner, with most of the 1.3-acre lot now underwater. At around 6 p.m., Nelson and several friends, including Charlie Sayle, Jr., and members of the Nantucket Police Department, were inside the east house shuttling furniture and Warner's belongings out the back door onto the driveway.

"The police were awesome ... all of sudden everybody was there, all these people, and it was awesome," he said.

PHOTO BY COLLEEN WHELDEN Clockwise from top, left: This 75-year-old, 75-foot tall American Elm tree fell against the Jared Coffin House during Sunday night's storm, breaking windows and shearing off the top of a cement post at the front steps as well as the portico above the door to the Tap Room. No one was injured when the tree toppled, and though guests must temporarily use the inn's Centre Street entrance. Nantucket Tree Warden Dave Champoux said the root system of the stately tree was neither strong nor extensive, so it was unable to sustain the storm's mighty blasts of wind. "The way it fell was fortuitous at the very least," said Champoux; A house at 25 Sheep Pond Road hangs from the bluff at a 45-degree angle; The water broke through Smith Point a bit east of the 'Hurricane Esther break' around 5:30 p.m. Monday. By 7 p.m. it was rushing through in three places. Neal Whelden, a third generation Madaket resident, was the first to see it with his wife, Christine, and later brought Harold, Colleen and Lily Whelden, also of Madaket, to see the break. By 7 p.m., over five hours before high tide, the water was rushing through. Above, Lily runs to join Harold and Neal. But Nelson said when they heard a creaking sound from beneath the house, he yelled for everyone to get out safely. Shortly after everyone made it out, the house slid part of the way off its concrete tube pilings down the bank to rest at a 42-degree angle against sandbags on the beach.

Nelson began checking the tides and the Weather Channel the night before, hoping the storm would not intensify. He said afterwards that he did not realize "how quick and how bad it was coming."

"We started getting the pictures and art and the expensive furniture out of the house," he said. "It [the ocean and waves] just started building and building when we were in there and then the house creaked and started to lift and then we clambered over each other and got out of there."

The east house went over the edge at about 6:40 p.m. on Monday night and National Grid cut the power around 8:30 p.m., Nelson said. There were no other power outage reports.

While he and his helpers frantically removed some furnishings from the west house, it stood its ground and ultimately survived the storm.

"I'm really surprised," he said. "If this wind didn't switch around that house wouldn't be there."

However, because the waves unearthed the septic tank for both houses, Nelson is unsure whether the Warners can still occupy the west house.

Warner and his neighbor at 19 Sheep Pond Road, the outspoken beach protection advocate Gene Ratner, both have installed giant sandbags in front of their houses in hopes of staving off just such an event. Warner's other house, barely 20 feet away, remains standing with its southeast corner partially undercut by ocean waves.

ESTHER ISLAND AGAIN

PETER B. BRACE/The Independent The very same waves gnawed a channel through Smith's Point at its narrowest section into Madaket Harbor Monday night.

In 1961. the 110 mph winds of Hurricane Esther formed Esther Island, the sparsely vegetated end of Smith's Point supporting three summer cottages, by cutting a rift through the beach.

But by 1988, waves, wind and shifting shoals closed the gap between Esther's Island and Nantucket, reconnecting the two. For most of the next 27 years, the owners of these summer cottages reached their properties by four-wheel-drive vehicles. Now all three will need boats to reach their sand dune oases if Esther Island remains separated from Nantucket.

Although the rest of the south- and east-facing beaches likely lost large amounts of sand, damage to the beaches along Baxter Road was exacerbated by the collapse of most of the terracing bulwark used to hold the bluff in place while the 'Sconset Beach Preservation Fund secures the necessary permits for its beach nourishment project.

"We had quite a bit of damage out there," said Cheryl Bartlett, executive director for the 'Sconset Beach Preservation Fund. "I would say a majority of it, all of the terracing where that

DON COSTANZO/The Independent public access way is, has toppled over and been damaged and some of the more southern-facing properties have lost their terraces."

Bartlett was quick to defend the terracing - coconut and jute fiber matting secured at the toe of the bluff, folded accordion-style and ascending the bluff with sand in between and anchored by long posts - that she said is serving a temporary, but vital purpose.

"Everybody has a lot of thoughts and comments on beach nourishment, but terracing is just a stopgap until we can get the beach nourishment in place," she said. "Beach nourishment is a completely different animal. What would the damage be like if there had been 150 feet of beach in front of that bluff?"

Bartlett added that under SBPF's notice of conditions, it can, and will almost immediately, rebuild the terraces after it cleans up what she said looked like a "war zone" at the bottom of the bluff. She has already filed a status report with the Conservation Commission. I