By now, we should be beleaguered. Three storms in 10 days, two of them powerful storms that knocked us in the teeth and put us on our heels.
But we don’t see that.
We see resiliency. We see people helping and caring for their neighbors. We see hardy New Englanders weathering the latest storm like it’s a minor nuisance, like a fly at a picnic easily swatted away.
We see it in our own staff, willing to get out in the storm and bring you photos and videos that demonstrate nature’s fury — Rich Saltzberg, Barry Stringfellow, and Gabrielle Mannino have done yeoman’s work in recent days. Not just with the storm, but with an onslaught of breaking news that sometimes had us feeling like we were drinking in news through a fire hose.
There was just one day in the past 10 where we weren’t scrambling to bring you some breaking news. On Monday, we had four breaking news stories, and that didn’t even include the storm breathing down our necks.
We see it in our production staff. Willing to get into the office on one of the worst days of the year — with art director Kris Rabasca typically leading the way and opening the office — because to not get in on Tuesday would mean getting you this issue of the newspaper in your mailboxes on Thursday would be next to impossible. They’re the underdogs who don’t typically get the bylines or the photo credits, although you will see photos from Nicole Jackson and a video clip from art director Chris Silva, because when there’s a storm, everyone on The Times staff rallies to bring you the most comprehensive coverage possible.
Carrie Blair, Bridget Palmieri, and Danielle Zerbonne in our ad sales department reported in from Edgartown and Oak Bluffs with snow totals, road conditions, and photos.
You’ll also see news photos from our Calendar editor Connie Berry, too, who even got her husband involved when a toppled tree crashed into a neighbor’s car. She and Community editor Geoff Currier also made their way into the office to get their content ready for production.
Times editor George Brennan was stuck in Falmouth (where he lives), but never stopped editing, reporting, and posting stories to the website from there, even when his power went out. And associate publisher Jamie Kageleiry took photos, posted content, shot video, and did just about everything necessary to bring you the news on our website. Oh, and she managed to get out The Minute, our new daily newsletter, through the constant flicker of power surges.
And through it all, copyeditor Barbara Davis, without power in the Campground for much of the day, somehow proofed all the news stories and newsletter content.
And we get a lot of help from you, our faithful readers. Your text messages. Your emails. Your photographs. They all help fill the narrative. It’s all appreciated.
Your comments about the coverage make it worthwhile, like this one that came during the height of our coverage on Tuesday: “The videos are thrilling to watch, and your general stories are fascinating also. Thank you, reporters, for your close coverage of these storms!”
Whether it’s an email, a comment through our website, or the handwritten note that awaited one of our staff members arriving at Mansion House for respite in the midst of one of the three nor’easters, it’s all appreciated.
We’ll be ready for the next storm, too. But maybe we could make it in a few weeks — or months — instead of a few days.
Growing pains
Somehow it seems appropriate that Edgartown harbormaster Charlie Blair was on a Peter Pan bus when he took a call from town administrator Pam Dolby that there might be a kiteboarder in distress.
He was able to coordinate a rescue by keeping in close contact with his shellfish constables Warren Gaines and Petie Jackson who executed it.
Turns out, a teen was kiteboarding and lost control of his kite. He was able to paddle back to shore, but instead of feeling relieved, the teen went after the kite in a kayak. Not a good decision with 20 to 30 mph winds churning up the surf the way it was that day.
But luckily for that teen, Blair and his colleagues were there when he needed them.
Our hats are off to them for answering the call. And, hey kid, next time let the kite go. We want you to be able to grow up.
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