Remember the Great Atlantic Gale of April 7, 2016?

Not likely although it blew through mostly unnoticed less than a week ago with tides a bit higher than usual.

The minimal “storm” did manage to leave its mark in one place. It succeeded in undoing much of Westport’s hard work along Beach Avenue.

A couple weeks earlier, a town bulldozer yet again plowed out a nice, smooth roadway out the beach toward the Knubble. But by the time Thursday’s wind had subsided, sections of that path had been erased by a fresh covering of deep sand. The first pickup truck that tried to drive through got stuck and had to be towed out.

In its zeal to prove a point and maintain a proper road here, Westport is fated to endure a costly and doomed public works Groundhog Day of plowing and clearing — over and over and over again. It is telling that, a couple of years ago, defenders of this road had to dig down through sand to prove that, indeed, a paved road once existed here.

What politicians dictate doesn’t much matter on this stretch of barrier beach. The ocean will have its way every time, especially in an era of rising water and stronger storms.

It’s why the state and Buzzards Bay Coalition have repeatedly cautioned Westport against trying to transform this lovely place into something Mother Nature didn’t intend and to focus efforts instead on protecting a fragile and imperiled barrier. Westport, though, seems to know better.

An un-gated route out to a handicapped access beach is a worthwhile goal; trying to maintain a smooth, neat “avenue” to the Knubble is futile. Worse than futile, it encourages some to drive up and over the dunes and beach grass that are this sand spit’s last line of defense.

April 7 won’t make any list of memorable coastal storms but, feeble as it was, it brought more weather than a rebuilt Beach Avenue could handle.