The New York Times
...One of the best documented compendiums ever published of what it meant to be there.

Dr. Robert C. Sheets, Director National Hurricane Center
It should be required reading....

Thomas H. Kean
...A terrific job of chronicling the devastation and rebirth that has marked the Shores history.

Barbara Bogaev, Radio Times, WHYY-FM
...As much an adventure story as it is a scientific chronicle of natural disasters.

Dr. Robert C. Sheets, Director National Hurricane Center
It should be required reading....

Richard DeAngelis, Editor Mariners Weather Log
It is simply one of the best weather books I have ever seen.

John T. Cunningham, author and historian
It startles, intrigues, challenges the imagination, and commands attention.

Senator Bill Bradley, from the Foreword
It is evocative and provocative, gritty, beautiful, a rare historical record of some of nature's greatest moments.

The Philadelphia Inquirer
If you want to work up a cold sweat... I recommend you pick up a copy.

The North Jersey Herald & News
...a human tapestry of loss, heroics and, most important, the resilience of the human spirit..

Book Description
Great Storms of the Jersey Shore is a dramatic history of major coastal storms which have hit the Jersey Shore. Generously illustrated with nearly two hundred photographs, engravings, and maps, the book is an opportunity to appreciate the horror and beauty of the great storms. This oversize book is beautifully printed, with many duotone reproductions, on heavy matte stock. The authors have combined exhaustive research of archival reports and old news accounts with interviews of more than 200 people who experienced major storms first-hand. Much of the book is devoted to these vivid stories, with extensive narratives of the devastating 1962 nor¹easter and the great hurricane of 1944. Those who have known the power of the great storms draw us in to a time and place where survival is uncertain. Few living at the shore today have experienced extreme storms, but for those who have ‹ as they describe in this book ‹ it is a defining moment in their lives. The book also touches upon the mythic nature of great storms, with excerpts from literature, the meteorology of coastal storms, and environmental implications for those living along the coast. It is a significant reference ‹ covering storms from the voyages of Columbus to the big nor¹easter of December ¹92 ‹ a must for every shore resident¹s library as well as an attractive coffee-table book.

From the Publisher
Also available in hardcover

Excerpted from Great Storms of the Jersey Shore by Larry Savadore, Bill Bradley, Margaret T. Buchholz. Copyright © 1997. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From an account of the hurricane of September 1944 on Long Beach Island: I kept watching and more water came over and pretty soon it was washing down in steady streams and then it came on down the street and got higher and higher and higher. I said, ³Mom, come on out here and look at this.² She came out on the porch and said, ³Aaaahhhhheeeeee.² I mean it scared her half to death. She sent me down to Robicek¹s corner store, to use their telephone to call my father and tell him to come down and get us and take us home. About a half-dozen men were standing around. They said, ³Your father can¹t get you; the causeway¹s under water.² The water was between my ankles and knees when I walked down, but it got higher in just the few minutes I was out of the house. We had a little front porch, four steps up from the sidewalk. On the top my mother had two big heavy flower boxes, and the water got high enough to wash them right away, then it washed the steps away, then it washed away a five-car garage from across the street. My three-year-old was so excited. She said, ³Oh, Mommy, there goes Jake¹s garage. Oh, Mommy, there goes Wilson¹s steps. Oh, Mommy, there goes...² Well, mommy was looking and didn¹t like it one bit. I was holding my little baby and was so scared. Then two men came up from the store; they said it was higher there and we should come down with the other people. They both looked at Elaine and since she was six weeks old, neither one wanted any part of carrying her. I wrapped her in a blanket and then a rubber sheet. I was scared to death she wouldn¹t be able to breath, the wind was so strong. One of the men went out carrying Caroline and another carried Chub. I wrapped him in a grey shawl with long fringe. The water was above my armpits and I was holding Elaine above my shoulders and bracing my heels in with every step and kind of feeling my way and also looking back because there were big pilings washing down. If one hit me, I knew I¹d go down. The man carrying Chub stepped in a hole where the sidewalk had washed away and went in over his head, and I guess he automatically threw up his arms...and he dropped Chub. I saw the man come up, feeling in the water for my baby and here I am holding one baby and can¹t do a thing about it and my other baby¹s gone. But Chub drifted into the cedar tree in front of Lippincott¹s house and we both saw him at the same time: He yelled and I yelled. The fringe had caught in the branches, and the man reached into the water under the shawl and scooped him up. He was hollering mad; he coughed and sputtered and started yelling right away.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Great Storms of the Jersey Shore is a dramatic history of majorcoastal storms which have hit the mid-Atlantic coast. Generously illustrated with nearly two hundred photographs, engravings, and maps, the book is an opportunity to appreciate the horror and beauty of the great storms. This oversize book is beautifully printed with duotone reproductions on heavy matte stock. The authors have combined exhaustive research of archival reports and old news accounts with interviews of more than 200 people who experienced major storms first-hand. Much of the book is devoted to these vivid stories, with extensive narratives of the devastating 1962 nor'easter and the great hurricane of 1944. Those who have known the power of the great storms draw us in to a time and place where survival is uncertain. Few living at the shore today have experienced extreme storms, but for those who have — as they describe in this book — it is a defining moment in their lives.