After 38 years of service, longtime Oak Bluffs emergency manager Peter Martell is stepping down from his post. His proudest accomplishment? "Nobody's died on my watch," he said.

One year after Hurricane Sandy dealt a knock-out punch to the mid-Atlantic and cast a glancing blow to the Vineyard, the question as to how New England will fare in the next great storm has been the subject of much discussion up and down the coast. The Vineyard has been lucky, said Dr. Jeffrey Donnelly, an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. But eventually the Island’s number will come up. Go back, for example, to the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.

Each morning when West Tisbury emergency management director John Christensen wakes up, he turns on his iPad and checks the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association’s weather forecast. It doesn’t matter if it’s the middle of winter or hurricane season.

On Saturday afternoon the Edgartown Police Department held an open house, giving taxpayers a chance to see all the new bells and whistles.

As Hurricane Bill threatened offshore and the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency issued a warning to swimmers and boaters about high seas and strong currents this weekend, the town of Chilmark is considering changes in beach safety protocol in light of two swimmer deaths and several dramatic rescues in the past month.

Hurricane Bill yesterday was traveling north-northwest from off the east coast of Central America, spreading high swells over the western Atlantic and is projected to pass some 200 miles off the coast of Massachusetts sometime on Sunday.