The first thing I did once the power at my house was restored Monday afternoon - and I was one of the lucky ones; I only lost it for 48 hours - was go on the Internet and do a search on hurricanes. I was curious to know what exactly qualifies as an official, full-fledged, brand-name hurricane.

Hey, I don't claim to be some kind of weather whiz, but if what we went through last weekend didn't earn a rightful place on Mother Nature's list of who's who among hurricanes, then can someone please explain to me what does.

Someone did.

"First of all, a hurricane has to have a minimum of 74 mph sustained winds," local weather guru Paul Piorek, the only weatherman I trust, explained. "This was not sustained winds. However, we did have unconfirmed reports of wind gusts of 65 to 70 mph. What that means is we had near hurricane force, and certainly tropical storm force, but neither were sustained "

I know they're officially calling it a nor'easter, but with a heavy rainstorm and strong winds that slammed the southwest corner of the state, with fallen trees pulled out of the ground by the roots, houses damaged, cars destroyed, nearly 128,000 area residents without power, schools closed and a state of emergency declared, all I can say is if it looks like a hurricane, feels like a hurricane, and sounds like a hurricane, it probably is a hurricane.

My favorite weatherman agreed. Sort of.

"Even though it didn't originate in the tropics and even though it had no name, this definitely had all the characteristics of a hurricane," Piorek said. "But it concentrated on just one area of the state: Greenwich, New Canaan, Norwalk, Stamford, Westport, and, to some degree, Fairfield."

My ears perked up when he mentioned "no name." When I was finally able to get back on my computer, I learned all about how hurricanes are named.

For example, did you know from 1953 to 1979 the U.S. Weather Bureau identified hurricanes by only women's names? From 1979 on, it was decided to include men's names, too. There are six different lists with 21 names on each that are recycled every year.

The names are in alphabetical order and alternate from men to women's names with only one name per letter. The first hurricane of 2010, for example, will be Hurricane Alex. Then Hurricane Bonnie, followed by Hurricane Colin, Hurricane Danielle, and so on.

Let's just hope we never get around to Virginie or Walter, the 20th and 21st names on the list.

And if a hurricane does significant damage, the name is retired and replaced, like Katrina in 2005.

Hurricane George, you may be interested to know, was retired in 1998.

Yet with 126 names available to choose from -- six lists times 21 names -- the weather powers that be couldn't throw one our way?

Think about it. Years from now, how are we supposed to refer to last weekend's historic storm? Do we just call it the "Storm of 2010?" Or how about the "No-Name Hurricane" like the "No-Name Defense" from the 17-0 Miami Dolphins Super Bowl team.

But, no, I feel it deserves a real name, like any other major catastrophe. That way when people look back 20 or 25 years from now they can say 'Hey, remember Hurricane Luigi?' or 'Do you remember when we lost power during Tropical Storm Penolope?' We can even call them 'Hurricane Louie' or 'Tropical Storm Penny' for short.

Heck, right now I'll even settle for Hurricane Alex.

Case in point: If you're old enough to remember, and even if you're not, you probably heard a lot talk about Hurricane Gloria this week, the storm that left her mark along the Eastern seaboard at the end of September 1985, and caused the worst storm-related power outage in the history of Connecticut.

Gloria was so bad it was retired from the list of hurricane names. Yet nearly a quarter of a century later, most people agree - myself included - the damage caused by last weekend's storm was worst.

"Hurricane Gloria wasn't even close to this," Vinnie Grillo Jr., the golf pro at Oak Hills, said a little after 10 o'clock Thursday morning, less than two hours before Norwalk's public course was scheduled to open for the season. "I remember Hurricane Gloria. I was the assistant pro here at the time and it was nothing like what we just saw.

"I can't believe they didn't call it a hurricane," he added. "Thousands of trees went down all over Fairfield County and that's not a hurricane?"

Joe Madaffari, the athletic director at Brien McMahon High School, agreed with Grillo's assessment.

"Nothing I ever remember compared to this," he said on Wednesday. "Hurricane Gloria was pretty bad, but it was not even close to this."

Even Piorek rated last week's storm higher on his scale.

"I definitely agree," he said. "In 1985 I was working with Dr. Mel at the Danbury Weather Center and I would say without question this was worse. This storm delivered far more damage, far more destruction, and far more inconvenience in specific areas than Hurricane Gloria."

Madaffari is dealing with all three after the scoreboard behind the end zone at Jack Casagrande Field blew over from the strong high winds and needs to be replaced.

"The insurance company still has to come down and take a look at it, so I should know more in three or four days," Madaffari said. "I filled out some paper work and it's all downtown now. Everyone has been very cooperative and the mayor has been very supportive. He and his staff know how important it is."

The BMHS boys lacrosse team opens its season at home on April 7, while the girls team plays its home opener two nights later.

"Hopefully we'll have a new scoreboard up and operating by the beginning of the season," Madaffari, who also reported the strong winds ripped some of the aluminum siding off the press box, said. "But if not, hopefully we'll have it up my mid-season. It takes at least three to five weeks to get it in here, but it could be a little sooner."

At least the spring sports season hasn't started yet. When Hurricane Gloria blew through the area in 1985, the high school fall sports season was already a couple of weeks old. And Friday, Sept. 27, the day Gloria struck, was supposed to be a busy one.

Three area football teams - Central Catholic, Wilton and Weston - were scheduled to play that night. All three games were postponed, as were the McMahon and Staples games on Saturday.

Meanwhile, a slew of other area high school sporting events - 16 in all between Friday and Saturday involving boys and girls soccer, and girls field hockey, volleyball and swimming - were also scratched.

One team did play on Saturday, however. The Wilton football team actually rescheduled its home game against Westhill for that night as the rain and winds were expected to subside a bit. They did, but the lights at the WHS football field were still without power as of Saturday morning. Power was restored by Saturday night and the Warriors won 28-0.

Central Catholic, McMahon, Staples and Weston, on the other hand, all moved their games to Sunday afternoon. The Cavaliers lost at home to New Milford 13-0, while the Senators traveled to Darien and won 24-18.

"I still remember that game," Madaffari, a math teacher at the time and an assistant football coach on the Senators staff under Casagrande. "I also remember McMahon was being used as an emergency shelter (as it was this week). You walked into the gym and there were cots all over."

Norwalk High's football team, meanwhile, didn't play at all that weekend, but not because of Hurricane Gloria. NHS was scheduled to play Andrew Warde, but when the Fairfield school dropped football for just that season, the Bears were left without an opponent. Although it was not a bad week for a bye.

Just like being between seasons when last weekend's storm hit saved a lot of athletic directors some big headaches.

"It couldn't have happened at a better time if it had to happen from an athletic standpoint," Norwalk High Athletic Director Wayne Mones, who is also a guidance counselor, admitted. "But from an education standpoint and from every other standpoint, it was a terrible time to happen. We're about to close out the third quarter and our CAPT Testing was just finishing up, but now it's going to be difficult to keep that continuity. Then after the teachers and students get back, it will be time for another vacation."

At least he doesn't have to worry about ordering a new scoreboard.

"Our athletic facility is in fine shape," he said Wednesday night. "But pitchers and catchers were supposed to come in this week, and the same at McMahon. The only upside is the CIAC said they can practice on Saturday and Sunday. Pitchers and catchers are only supposed to work out Monday to Friday the first week, but because we've been out of school the CIAC said we can go from Thursday to Sunday. But now there's no school on Thursday.

"I can't really remember in my 33 years (in the school system) anything close to this," Mones, who was the soccer coach at Central Catholic during Hurricane Gloria, added. "I remember we had a tremendous snowstorm once and a few other times. But those were a one-day deal and then back to school. To be out of school for four straight days is absolutely unbelievable."

And he said that before a decision on Friday's status was made.

While most of the winter sports teams were done with their season, one team that was affected by last weekend's storm was the Norwalk-McMahon co-op swim team. It competed in the Class LL state meet Wednesday night in Middletown, but was unable to practice Monday or Tuesday.

"As a team we were not able to go anywhere to practice," coach Doug Marchetti said. "The policy in the district says when school is closed, there's no practice. Fortunately, most of the guys who were in the state meet are club swimmers and were able to practice with their club teams. A couple of them practiced with the ZEUS swim team, a couple with the Wilton Y team, and a couple of them took the initiative to go to the Norwalk YMCA on their own. To their credit they made it work. But it still would've been nice to get together as a team and work on things like relay handoffs.

"Were we frustrated by it? Yes, but it is what it is. I'm sure with high school kids a break in routine messes you up a little. But you know what? The Greenwich swimmers had the same disruptions. The Stamford-Westhill swimmers had the same disruptions. The Staples swimmers had the same disruptions. So we can't use that as an excuse."

The storm also hindered the prep work for several baseball diamonds in the city.

"It couldn't have happened at a worse time," Gerald Anastasia, athletic director for the Norwalk Recreation and Parks Deparment, said Wednesday. "This is a big two weeks for us as we try to get all the fields ready. Luckily we have some good weather now and Ken Hughes, our superintendent, is doing a great job. He was out there all day Sunday checking out all the damage. He's definitely a big plus for our department.

"I talked to Ken and he wants to get the high school fields up by Monday, at least the baseball and softball fields. That's when they start practicing."

The baseball diamonds at McMahon and Malmquist field behind City Hall, which NHS uses, were both being worked on Wednesday.

"The field is a little spongy. It's real soft," Nathan Vass, a 27-year veteran of the Rec and Parks Department, said as he tilled the infield at Malmquist, said. "Usually it doesn't leave tire marks, but today it is."

On the mound was a sign telling people to "Stay Off The Field," although that didn't keep everyone away. In foul territory beyond right field were several players taking batting practice under a net.

Hard to believe after last weekend, but baseball season isn't that far away.

"We'll probably have to push the Little League fields back a few days," Anastasia said. "They wanted to be out there by the 29th, but now we're going to have to push it back to probably April 3."

Despite the storm, Oak Hills was somehow ready for the season to open.

"We lost about 30 trees, but we've been cleaning up the last few days," Grillo said Thursday. "We officially open today at noon, in about two hours. We're about three days behind, but we're going to open on time and we're going to be up and running for the good weekend weather."

Hopefully, by next week everything should be back pretty close to normal. But it will be a long time before anyone forgets the storm - hurricane or not - that hit Norwalk and surrounding towns last weekend.

Mones hopes we never forget.

"For students to go through something like this that they haven't been exposed to should be a real eye opener for them," he said. "A lot of people didn't know what to do being home four days. Just going without TV for one day was hard for a lot of them.

"But it also showed how everybody pulled together. Compared to what happened in Chile and Haiti, I think it gave us a flavor of what real hardships are. It's maybe a once in a lifetime thing, but everybody is doing their best to get through it."