from hurricane Emily to Irene...and chocolate chip cookies

Emily was the first hurricane we were threatened with two weeks ago, now Irene has school cancelled today and this time there really is rain to show for the weatherman’s predictions. Snow days in the US are usually announced via the news on television; they mean hot chocolate, sleeping in, making snowmen and running around in the snow (if snow actually falls), and movies. Would you say that’s an accurate summary? So far Dominican hurricanes that call for a cancelled day of school are announced by word of mouth to the teachers, result in delayed lesson planning, call for chocolate chip cookie making, movies once again, and tking picture of the rain (if rain actually falls). Oh. And the students and their parents don’t find out that school is cancelled until they get to school the next morning. Or, if it starts raining over night and the roads flood, well that serves as a pretty good sign that there isn’t school. At first I wasn’t sure why a hurricane like this (it’s raining, but nothing more than that right now) would necessitate closing school. Then I remembered: dirt roads. Rain is to dirt roads what ice and snow are to paved roads. If and when it rains during a hurricane, the roads that lead to school develop huge potholes, puddles, and are not easy or safe to drive on. Basically, canceling school due to threat of a hurricane is similar to canceling school preemptively due to a snowstorm. Just our precipitation in New England is a little bit colder.

Lesson of the day: When you hear about hurricane Emily and then hurricane Irene and wonder why you haven’t heard about hurricanes F through H it’s probably because hurricanes F through H weren’t big enough for you to have to worry about, they were some other country’s problem.