Strong winds and high surf conditions from Hurricane Erin are expected to cause disruptions to ferry service to Martha’s Vineyard this week. 

The call for help came from Georgia on Friday night. By Sunday afternoon, half the American Legion Hall in Vineyard Haven was filled with supplies destined for states reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene.

Experts predict that with ocean temperatures at record highs and the global climate shifting into a hazardous La Niña pattern this year, the result could be one of the worst hurricane seasons on record.

A hurricane outlook released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association says the region will be seeing hurricane activity at normal or less than normal levels. The Atlantic hurricane season began June 1 and runs through Nov. 30.

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.

Oct. 29 marks the one-year anniversary of Superstorm Sandy. Had she headed 200 miles farther north of her Atlantic City-area landfall and then taken a left, we’d still be dealing with the havoc left in her wake.