Cape and Islands dig out from near blizzard

January 28, 2008 09:19 PM Email| Comments (0)| Text size – +

(AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

A satellite image taken today at 12:15 a.m. shows the offshore storm that dumped up to a foot of snow on Cape Cod.

By Beth Daley and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

HYANNIS -- Hundreds of Nantucket-bound travelers were stranded on Cape Cod for a second day Monday, after a northeaster that missed Greater Boston walloped parts of the region with an estimated foot of snow and gusty winds.

Ferries to the island remained at their dock Monday because of dangerous seas, though flights resumed after Barnstable Airport reopened around 4:30 p.m.

"You just have to make the best of it," said Kathy Molloy of Nantucket who was returning home to the island with her 9-year-old daughter Kelli, who had performed in a precision skating competition in Virginia over the weekend. Kelli's team rushed to make a 2:45 p.m. ferry to Nantucket Sunday, only to have the boat turn back to Hyannis after two hours of pitching seas that made Kelli and many other passengers sick. The captain felt it was too dangerous to attempt docking on the island.

"It's fine," Molloy said Monday morning at the Hyannis Courtyard by Marriot. "We don't have malls on Nantucket, so you know where we are going today," she said.

Sunday's near-blizzard packed wind gusts that reached almost 60 miles per hour on Nantucket and 52 miles per hour in Provincetown, according to the National Weather Service. Snowfall totals were hard to measure because of drifts and high winds that continued through most of Monday.

Most schools on the Cape were canceled. At the height of the storm, up to 3,000 people lost power, according to NStar spokeswoman Caroline Allen. Almost all of the scattered outages were restored by early Monday morning, Allen said.

In Chatham, the fierce storm carried a house off its foundation on North Beach and delivered it, with many windows still intact, to another beach a mile away. Two more houses on the spit of land will be dismantled this week, said Chatham Harbormaster Stuart Smith, which would bring the total to seven houses lost since a northeaster punched a hole in Nauset Beach in April. Five more houses remain extremely vulnerable, he said.

"The erosion is just occurring so much faster than anyone thought," Smith said, adding that cottage owners were trying to take down the buildings before the sea does.

No major traffic accidents were reported, but travel remained difficult through last evening on secondary roads, as crews spread sand and battled shifting snowdrifts. Cape Cod Canal officials said the canal remained open during the storm and reported no shipping problems.

"The concern now is blowing and drifting," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton.

As conditions returned to near normal Monday night for Cape Codders, the burden continued for the weekend skiers, school athletic teams, and other groups that were trying to get to Nantucket. By 5 p.m., the wait for stand-by vehicles was estimated to be 24 hours at the Nantucket ferry's Hyannis terminal, with 80 cars and six trucks in line, The Steamship Authority's website said. Officials at the entrance to the terminal said it could take two days more to get an unreserved vehicle over because there were so many cars waiting.

The wait for the Martha's Vineyard ferry out of Woods Hole was only about an hour, but mechanical issues canceled three Vineyard boats Monday, adding to the storm's aftermath.

In Hyannis hotels, weary chaperones asked throngs of antsy students to call parents weighing options: Another night in a hotel? A $50 plane ride if the runway opens? Some were holding out hope that ferry service would resume Monday night.

"We came from Nantucket basically for a night in a hotel," said Kendra Lockley, who was at the Hyannis Courtyard by Marriott with members of the Girl Scout Troop 1777.

But when parents heard about the storm Sunday, they told the girls to forget their class and head home. They went to the mall.

"It's just part of living on the island," Molloy said.