When analysts were attempting to decide the most important scientific or technological advances of the 20th century, great emphasis was placed on medical achievements, refinement of the motor vehicle and the Wright Brothers’ airplane and its descendants.

But about a week ago, everyone in Lawrence got a reminder that the development and refinement of energy sources and the many miracles they can work might well have been the top honoree. In one instant, thousands of residents lost electrical power in a horrific burst of storm-driven wind.

The greatest miracle of the downdraft was that nobody was seriously injured. Just imagine the tragedy if the storm had hit an hour later, at about 9 a.m., when people were thronging into Plymouth Congregational Church for its 9:30 worship service. The hundreds of bricks that showered down from at least two of the devastated towers on the building, originally built in 1870, could have hurt or killed many.

The storm was a vivid reminder of how dependent we’ve become on electronic devices. So much for turning on the television set to get details on what had happened. What about going to the kitchen to listen to a battery-powered radio and microwave a cup of coffee to start the day? What microwave? No power, no heat. Cordless telephones were useless. Many thanked heaven for cellulars.

Those who were intending to go somewhere found that their electric-powered garage doors would not function. Those who knew how to disengage the door-openers could raise the portals the old-fashioned way, manually. Some, many in the older generation, were not strong enough to do so and in a sense were trapped in their homes.

But consider the way the world has learned to harness energy and turn it into a normally willing and docile slave. Think how often we take that luxury for granted and forget to thank those who over the past 100 years or so have found ways to get coal, petroleum, sunlight, nuclear and wind power to allow us to do so many things with such ease and pleasure.

After the recent ordeals, one would have no trouble getting many a vote for the development and harnessing of power sources as perhaps the greatest achievement of the 1900s. Just consider what our existence might be without them.