Rain from Earl soaks Martha's Vineyard

EDGARTOWN, Mass. -- Heavy rains and strong winds pummeled Martha's Vineyard on Friday night as Earl passed by to the south.

Despite the fact that Earl was downgraded to a tropical storm, it still churned up some rough seas and a good amount of storm surge.

In several areas, the high tide and surge brought seas to the same level as the land, and with nightfall, it was difficult to differentiate between what was wet and what was dry.

At the docks, there was no line of delineation between water and land as waves poured onto the streets.

By Saturday morning, the sea was calm. For Michael Briggs, Earl delivered a bounty: the fisherman caught a 32-inch bass.

VINEYARD RESIDENTS PREPARED AHEAD OF EARL

People on the island claim they were ready.

Rob Coad, a fisherman who made it through the last hurricane 19 years ago, watched the weather reports closely, because his lively hood depended on it.

“It was probably the most wind I’ve ever seen here,” Coad said. “It’s scary you know, you’ve just got to make sure you make the right call because after it goes by you’ve got to go back to work again. You want the thing to be able to move afterwards.”

As Earl drew closer, Michael Zadeh and other people on Martha’s Vineyard worked hard to make sure homes and businesses were ready to endure Earl’s wrath, no matter how strong it turned out to be.

“Yesterday we did probably three or four - boarded them up with plywood, moved all the furniture in,” Zadeh said.

Typically shops on Martha’s Vineyard are crowded for the unofficial end of summer, but shop owners prepared their stores for just one visitor on Friday - Hurricane Earl.

Shop owners removed signs and boarded up windows as to not take any chances incase Earl came crashing ashore.

“If the windows break it’s a big mess,” said Marshall Cook of Christina Gallery. “Then you get the rain and everything else. It’s a big advantage to us to not have a problem.”

Two hotels in Edgartown (Kelley House and Harborview), which sit on the water, evacuated guests.

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