Hurricane Sandy, the historic storm that dealt a knockout blow to New York city and the New Jersey coast early this week spared the Vineyard for the most part. But while the center of the storm stayed hundreds of miles away, the Island experienced near-hurricane conditions throughout the day on Monday, including serious flooding and coastal erosion, forcing school closures, transportation shuts downs and a day indoors for most Islanders, often without power.

Due to steady and increasing erosion at the Gay Head Cliffs, the Gay Head Light will need to be moved in the next one to three years and could cost as much as $3 million to relocate, the Aquinnah board of selectmen learned this week.

At the board’s weekly meeting on Tuesday, Martha’s Vineyard Museum director David Nathans said the move of the historic lighthouse is only a matter of time.

Editor’s Note: Fourteen candidates are running for nine seats on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission. At least one and not more than two may be elected from each of the six towns. In interviews with the Gazette, candidates answered questions about the recent vote on the roundabout, the issue of whether the commission should review large houses as developments of regional impact, and the role of the commission on the Vineyard.

The arcane issue of clay rights surfaced this week in Chilmark when the town selectmen voted to approve a tax rate for the coming year.

At their meeting Tuesday selectmen approved a tax rate of $2.29 for 2013 at the annual public property rate classification hearing with the board of assessors. The rate of $2.29 per thousand-dollar valuation is an increase of 21 cents over last year’s rate of $2.08.

With Hurricane Sandy still hundreds of miles south of the Vineyard Monday afternoon, the Island was feeling its blast with many roads underwater from extreme high tides and huge ocean waves pounding the shoreline. Winds were gusting up to 60 miles per hour in places, and there was one report from Cuttyhunk of a gust clocked at 81 mph. There were scattered power outages through out the Island and some reports of trees down, including one in Vineyard Haven that caught fire.

Storm preparations continued throughout the day Saturday as Vineyarders kept all eyes on the forecasts for Hurricane Sandy, churning northward off