We were sitting at the lunch counter at the corner drugstore near where we live in the city, munching on BLTs and chips and watching the weather forecast for the Richmond area on the Weather Channel.

It’s Saturday afternoon, mind you, and the power has already gone out at the house (no surprise there, it seems to go out every time we have a mild thunderstorm) but the forecast seemed pretty tame. Irene would bring rain with winds in the 25 to 35 mph range.

No sweat, right?

Wrong.

As the day wore on the winds got worse and the big old oak in the front yard, just yards from the house, was whipping its branches around as if possessed. This just had to be the time it finally gave in and crushed the roof, I thought, since it had survived so many other hurricanes. Good luck can’t hold forever, I feared. But, in the end, all it did was drop a few small branches and a bunch of foliage in the yard.

Others in the area were not so lucky and by the time it was all over and we stepped out Sunday morning to, ahem, assess, as they call it, it was clear that the Richmond area had been hit by a major storm.

Before Irene arrived, some folks had begun to belabor the media for over covering the approaching hurricane and in the end, the storm did seem to cause less damage up north than was feared.

But in our neck of the woods, preparation was essential. No batteries, no light. No prepared foods, nothing to eat when the power goes out. All up and down Patterson Avenue the sound of the chain saw could be heard as tree service companies and homeowners dealt with scores of trees down, on top of cars and houses and blocking roads completely.

In Goochland people seem to have fared somewhat better, thank goodness, although a significant number of households in the eastern end lost power and a number of trees blocked roads. And while many area schools closed Monday, Goochland’s were open on time. Seems Irene spared the county the severe blow it administered to the city.

So I guess there’s no point in taking forecasters to task for not having a perfectly accurate crystal ball. Too much hollering about all the danger and they are accused of over coverage. Underestimate the potential damage and we get irritated. They can’t win.

What it all boils down to is that Irene has served as yet another reminder, as did the recent earth quake, that we live at the mercy of forces larger and more powerful than ourselves.

As much as we would like to think we can be in control of our lives, it’s just not so.

In the end, Nature always prevails, providing us periodically with lessons in humility, reminding us of the limits of our power.