Island endures first storm of the season
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
The first big storm of 2008 was a reversal of fortune for Nantucket, which often gets rain while the mainland gets buried in snow.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent National Grid workers repair wires along Polpis Road Monday at around noon.

Sunday's nor'easter dropped 5.5 inches of snow on Nantucket and whipped the island with wind gusts up to 56 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The storm closed businesses, forced

ferry service cancellations and the airport to shut down while giving students a sledding pass on Monday.

The National Weather Service's Southern New England Forecast office in Taunton confirmed that the storm missed the larger regional metropolitan areas of Boston and Providence, but hit Plymouth County and the Cape and islands the hardest.

Although the storm was fairly short-lived, its winds were enough to force the Steamship Authority's M/V Eagle to return to Hyannis Sunday on its 2:45 p.m. run to Nantucket, stranding scores of Nantucketers who either were booked on that boat or were trying to get back to the island after the Hy-Line cancelled its boats. Barnstable County Airport also closed earlier that afternoon. Planning Director Andrew Vorce described a turbulent ride that he believed came within eight miles of the island before turning around. (The Steamship Authority reported that the Eagle was 10 miles from Hyannis when she returned to port.)

"The waves caused the boat to go up and down. It was a really rough ride," he said. "There were many people getting sick. The impact of the waves hitting the boat was tremendous.

"The boat was fairly crowded with all the people who were trying to get back, a lot of people with families."

Vorce said that the PA system on the Eagle appeared to be malfunctioning, as some passengers heard the announcement of the return to port. He relied on a friend who called the Nantucket terminal to see when the boat would be getting in, only to learn that the boat had already turned around. Vorce guesses the Eagle got back to Hyannis around 7 p.m.

"By then, the storm had been reaching full intensity on the Cape, so people were deposited there in blizzard conditions that had been building all day," he added.

Once back in Hyannis, Vorce said those islanders with vehicles on the boat helped many without cars get to accommodations. He was able to catch one of the first flights back to Nantucket at around 4:30 p.m. on Monday.

Hy-Line Cruises owner Murray Scudder said that his company suspended service between Hyannis and Nantucket on Sunday after just two trips to the island with the M/V Lady Martha and resumed her schedule with the last boat on Monday night.

"We got back online yesterday evening at the 7 p.m., and then we went on full schedule at 6:30 a.m. this morning [yesterday]," said Scudder.

Nantucket Memorial Airport shut down Sunday afternoon at 1 p.m. and reopened at 9:30 a.m. on Monday morning, said Airport Operations spokesperson Janine Torres.

Wet snow freezing on power lines, coupled with high winds, caused outages to more than 1,500 customers (including the beacon of Sankaty Head Lighthouse), with most losing power for no more than four hours.

"The effect of the storms began for us with scattered outages beginning Sunday afternoon between 4 and 5 p.m.," said National Grid spokesperson Debbie Drew. "As the storm intensified, we began to see the majority of the outages in the Eel Point Road, Madaket Village and Polpis Road areas. Through Sunday evening, we had as many as 1,200 to 1,500 customers out at varying times."

By early Monday morning, Drew said that National Grid had all but 200 customers powered up with the last

few reenergized by 2 a.m. Tuesday morning. I