NORTH ATTLEBORO - For the first time in its 11 year history, the Downtown Associates of North Attleboro has been forced to cancel its annual block party.

While skies have been sunny all morning, weather forecasts for days have been calling for thundershowers, rain and hail in the evening. The bad weather is expected to arrive between 4 and 7 p.m. - at the height of the block party activities.

"This is the first time we've ever canceled and believe me it took a lot of soul searching. We couldn't wait until 4 p.m. to make a decision. Given the forecast, we made a decision that is in the best interest of keeping everyone safe," said Carol Lyons, one of the event organizers. "For 11 years, we've been very lucky with the weather and at some point your luck has got to run out."

Organizers had hoped that the rain would hold off for several days - but joked they are now hoping the sunny skies will turn dark this afternoon as confirmation that they made the right decision.

The violent nature of this year's storms, which have drenched the area, downed trees and produced instances of hail played into the decision to cancel. "If it were any other summer, we might have made a different decision. Usually summer storms pass over and are gone in 10 minutes - but this year's storms are different," Lyons said.

Downtown Associates of North Attleboro ultimately decided that spreading sand along the downtown streets would be a bad idea. Due to the large number of vendors, it was impossible to reschedule the event for another day.

Although the major event was cancelled, downtown restaurants will be open for business. In addition, two indoor activities - a screening of "Monsters, Inc." at the Twin Rivers Church at 6:30 p.m., and the grand opening of the Sharon Credit Union at 7 p.m., will go on as scheduled.