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Community Corner

Making Hurricane Irene a Family Adventure

We told tales of historic hurricanes to hit us, but we were one of the lucky ones not to lose power this time around.

As Hurricane Irene prepared to come thundering into Dedham last weekend, we huddled up and battened down the hatches, Shumway-style.

We, like everyone in the area, braced for what could be downed tree limbs, power lines and high winds. We watched the meteorologists and the online Doppler radar updates as though our lives depended on it. We were completely consumed by Irene and how she would affect us.

And it was sort of fun.

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We regaled the kids with tales of Hurricane Gloria when we were kids and how she tore through our neighborhoods, uprooting trees and leaving us with no electricity for days. We told them about Hurricane Bob and the flooded basements that we had as a result. Andy and I were even able to tell them what it was like to be an eyewitness to Hurricane Fabian in 2003, as we happened to be on our fifth anniversary trip to Bermuda during the devastating destruction (talk about lousy timing).

They seemed ready for the challenge.

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We spent much of Saturday (before the rains came) moving patio planters and lightweight lawn furniture into the garage. The kids helped bring the porch cushions in and move any hanging pots onto the ground. We even broke into a little impromptu landscaping (offering financial compensation for our young crew helped immensely) and wound up making the side yard perfectly manicured for the impending storm.

I’m sure that Irene appreciated the gesture.

When we were forced inside, we made sure that all of the flashlights had batteries and the candles and matches were right next to them. We had bottled up extra water and turned the refrigerator and freezer up to their highest settings in case we lost power. We were READY.

As we awoke on Sunday morning to a house filled with electricity (and yes, I’ll admit it… air conditioning!), we broke out the puzzles and completed two big ones before 10 a.m. We ate soup and watched the winds and rain whip outside.

The most exciting part of the day was hearing a huge tree branch that broke and dangled all day and night over our neighbor’s garage. Luckily for us (an understatement to say the least), it swung back and forth until the tree service was able to take it down the following day. And yes, I fully intend on buying a lottery ticket to see if my good fortune will continue.

So although our hurricane experience (where we never lost power) was about as rough as camping in the lobby of a Four Seasons, I loved seeing the kids work together to get ready to face Mother Nature head on. We did it as a family and counted ourselves lucky that we had one another.

And air conditioning. And hot soup.

We’re so tough.

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