“I was under that pine tree when the hurricane came through,” Hunt said. I can picture the situation clearly as he tells the story, and I admire his quick thinking because I’m not sure I would have recognized that fallen tree as a safe haven. He spent ten minutes, maybe fifteen, beneath the tree while every other tree in the forest came crashing down.

Eventually, he crawled out from under it and poked his head up. There wasn’t a single tree standing. “My estimate was that 90 percent of all the trees in Rindge over six inches in diameter got blown down in ten minutes or so. Some of them broke off, but most of them uprooted,” he said. “Most of it was pine.”