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Kennedy wedding, wind turbine blade, erosion and more: Top Stories

Posted on by Vaseline

The dog days of summer are here on Cape Cod and it’s been a busy season on the Cape. The Barnstable County Fair is underway, an Eastham woman scored a big win with a scratch-off ticket, the fallout from the broken Vineyard Wind blade continues, and more.

Also, be sure to check out the Cape Cod Times sports coverage of the Cape Cod Baseball League, including voting in our polls for the best Cape League pitcher, infielder, and outfielder of the week in our polls. Also, be sure to stay up to date with our coverage of the arts on the Cape, such as the recent production of “The Little Shop of Horrors.”

Below are some of the most-read stories of the week on the Cape Cod Times website.

Mariah Kennedy Cuomo marries Tellef Lundevall in Hyannisport

Mariah Kennedy Cuomo married her boyfriend, Tellef Lundevall, on Saturday before 400 guests at the Kennedy Compound in Hyannisport, a seaside spot dubbed the Summer White House where her extended family has wed, mourned and made history for generations.

Wendy Northcross, co-founder and executive director of the John F. Kennedy Hyannis Museum, described the wedding as “a stealth operation. They kept it well under wraps.”

After the couple got engaged in November, Northcross said, museum staff were told to expect a Kennedy wedding in Hyannisport in June. But that didn’t happen.

“But on Wednesday or Thursday, two people came to the museum and said they were here for the wedding, so that’s how we found out,” Northcross said. “Then someone else said Caroline Kennedy was in town too.”

Kennedy Wedding on Cape Cod: ‘A real stealth operation’: Mariah Kennedy Cuomo marries Tellef Lundevall in Hyannisport

Erosion threatens Cape Cod National Seashore home

An oceanfront home with one of the best beach views on Cape Cod is facing an uncertain future due to erosion. According to a press release from Cape Cod National Seashore, the park-owned home at 40 Ocean View Drive in Eastham is “no longer habitable in its current location.”

The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home, known as the Bartlett House, was built in 1960 and sits on a bluff just north of Coast Guard Beach. It was acquired by the National Park Service from H. Craigin Bartlett in 1964, the news release said. The home was used by seasonal park employees for decades and has been open to the public as a short-term rental in recent years.

The sandy plain where the house sits is rapidly eroding. In April 2023, the house was 45 feet from the edge and is now less than 13 feet from the edge, the park said.

According to the park, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) determined on July 9 that the home was unfit for habitation, beginning a 20-day waiting period “to appeal this decision,” according to the Seashore.

According to the Seashore: “If no appeal is filed, the home will be offered to any interested state or local government agency or homeless organization. An expression of interest in the property must be submitted to HUD. The interested party must complete an application package and ultimately remove the structure. If no expression of interest is made in the home, the National Park Service will proceed with plans to demolish the structure before it is claimed by the sea.”

House on the edge: Erosion Threatens Cape Cod National Seashore Home: ‘Before It’s Claimed by the Sea’

Mashpee tribe aims to reduce baby food use and strengthen community

According to Alexandra Lopes-Pocknett, a member of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe will welcome approximately 100 babies into the country between 2023 and 2024.

“It’s probably the biggest baby boom we’ve had in a century,” Lopes-Pocknett said.

Because of the high number of babies being born and the tribe’s traditional knowledge of birth and lactation ceremonies is limited, members of the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe are offering a training for Native lactation counselors. The training will take place September 23-27. Classes will be held at the Wampanoag Language Reclamation Project in Mashpee.

Breastfeeding training can help break the overuse of bottle feeding and strengthen tribal community, said Rachael Lovely, a tribal member who recently gave birth.

“The training provides an opportunity for participants to connect with other Indigenous women and their entire families,” Lopes-Pocknett said. “These are just the first steps we are taking to ensure health and longevity when it comes to reproductive rights for Indigenous people in our homelands.”

The training will cover breastfeeding support, alternative feeding methods, paternal and family support, historical trauma and parenting practices, and how food sovereignty relates to breastfeeding and lactation.

Mashpee Tribe Experiences Baby Boom: ‘Biggest baby boom.’ Mashpee tribe wants to reduce baby food use, strengthen community

Cause of Vineyard Wind Leaf Breakage

A manufacturing issue appears to have been the cause of the catastrophic failure of a turbine blade at the Vineyard Wind offshore project, an executive at the blade’s manufacturing company, GE Vernova, said. The giant blade collapsed, sending pieces crashing into the ocean.

GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said during a quarterly earnings webcast that the company has yet to complete its root cause analysis, but that the investigation so far “indicates that there was a production abnormality associated with the blade involved.”

He stressed that analysts have found no evidence of a technical design flaw in the blade. There is also no evidence that the blade failure was similar to the failure in May at the Dogger Bank A offshore wind farm in the North Sea off the coast of Yorkshire, England, which “was caused by an installation error at sea.”

The federal Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has issued a formal order halting electricity production from all of its wind turbine generators until it determines whether the blade failure affects other VW turbines.

Since the nearly 351-foot-long blade began breaking, pieces of it have washed up on the southern beaches of Nantucket, as well as on Tuckernuck and Muskeget Islands and off Monomoy. The debris included pieces of various sizes, composed of fiberglass and foam. Some Barnstable residents also began reporting possible small fragments on Craigville Beach.

Why did the Vineyard Wind’s leaf break?: Probable cause of Vineyard Wind blade breakage identified