Recently our Moms Council has discussed topics like developing an emergency plan, how to keep summer vacation educational, and monitoring what kids watch and listen to.

Question: What did your family do without power during Irene?

Abbey Rowe: We were only without power for a little over a day.  And because we didn't sustain any damage from the storm, we were able to look at it as a little vacation from our everyday routine.  I was forced to get a little creative with activities on activities because we were cooped up in the house all day.  We made playdough and built an indoor obstacle course, and both were big hits with Adelaide.  On Sunday night, we grilled some of the food that was going to waste and had a little hurricane party with friends and family.  My heart really went out to those who are still without power.  As it was out at our house for such a short period of time, it ended up being kind of fun!

Nikki Vazquez: Since we already don't have television, the only thing different about our day was being thoughtful with what we ate, but easy in the summer when you have fresh fruit and veggies on hand!  Waylon found the day to be an adventure and it was fun to read a story by the fireside with candles throughout the house at night.  We were happy to have prepared for the worst, but never needed to tap into those resources with our power only having been out for about 40 hours.

Lynn Ceglie: The first few hours of the power outage were sort of exciting.  The whole family played a rare game of Monopoly and listened to the wind howl.  When the storm passed, we took a drive around the city to see the surf, which was gorgeous!  Sunday night, we took a walk downtown and noticed all of the gas lanterns in Washington Square and were surprised how the Newport City Hall dome was lit like a beacon.  Government never sleeps???  

Anyway, by Monday afternoon, my teenagers were itching to get back to their routines. Their friends tweeted all of the neighborhoods that had restored power....we waited until we got lucky around 4pm.  When the power came back, the oven fan started up reminding me that I was in the middle of making omelettes that morning and all of the overhead lights went on indicating that we were in the middle of a very grey morning.  Eerily, it seemed that time stood still and the last 30 hours never really happened.  

Naomi Neville: Our activities had the same range as everyone else, games, puzzles and candles.

I took a number of calls from people trying to guestimate when the power would return. And I was doing the same. If the power is out a day, we'll stick it out. If it's out a week, we should borrow my sister's generator in MA, etc.

My husband spent a lot of time on National Grid's website looking for information but had trouble getting anything specific.  The City also shared limited information.

I would hope that we could improve on ways to let people know the progress of restoring power. More information would help people make better plans.

The City's new Code Red system could be used for relaying information better. I think I got a call after the power was restored to let me know but I figured that out all by myself when the lights came back on.

A phone call the day before explaining the situation and the steps that were being taken to fix the problem would have been more helpful.