RICK HERRICK

508-693-8065

(herricklr@verizon.net)

It was a long day, the Sunday of Hurricane Irene. We had worried about it all week, and were well prepared.

A crew on Saturday at the tennis club led by Sue Collinson put battens on the windows in the yellow room. The club weathered the storm well with the one problem that a lot of topping was lost on courts three, four and six.

The same story unfolded at the yacht club. Because yacht club activities had concluded a week prior to the storm, the club had already been put to bed. “That certainly helped,” reported president Page Stephens. “We had a little scare with the high tide on Sunday morning, but most of our boats were either hauled or put on moorings. No boats were damaged.”

Dan Hogan and Melissa Banta had a unique problem. They own the “Doll House” on East Chop Drive. According to Dan, their house sits six inches above mean high tide, which makes them vulnerable to a tidal surge. In preparing for the storm, they placed their furniture on saw horses and raised their appliances on blocks of wood. When I checked with them on Monday morning, all was well with the saw horses on the front yard and the furniture back in place.

Our Market prepared for the storm by stocking the shelves. I was interested to learn that liquor sales increase dramatically during such times. I guess it’s a good thing to have around if you lose power. I wouldn’t recommend brushing your teeth with it, but it may help ease the pain of missing the Red Sox game on TV.

Kelly Hess led a crew at the beach club on Thursday to get ready for the storm. They took up the raft, the diving board, the stairs and the ladders connected to the pier. They put away benches and furniture in the utilities room, and lowered hurricane shutters to protect the windows.

Unfortunately, as most people who were here know, the beach club took a direct hit with significant damage being done to the little pier and the big pier by the diving board. It was reassuring to find Kelly, her staff and Reagan Construction putting it all back together on Monday morning.

When all is said and done, I think we can conclude that the Chop weathered the storm well. There was even a silver lining. Between 9 and 11 a.m. on Sunday, six inches of new sand was added to the beach at the beach club. On Monday morning several East Choppers were combing the beach for sea glass. As I gathered my notebook and prepared to return home, I looked across the beach toward Oak Bluffs. Amazingly, the osprey nest was fully intact. Those birds build remarkable structures, I thought. Maybe we should give them some of this stimulus money.