Book Description
The authors, both award-winning reporters for The Philadelphia Inquirer, shared a fascination with the great Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962 that slammed into the Atlantic Coast, devastating sections of the New Jersey Shore. They set out in April of 1998 to examine the history and impact of that storm. It soon became clear that the storm was a pivotal event in the development of the coast. Instead of retreating to higher ground, speculators and builders rushed to rebuild on the waters' edge, driving up land values. Now, billions of dollars in developments line the nations beaches, built on sand, awaiting the wrath of nature.

About the Author
Gilbert M. Gaul has been a reporter for 25 years, the last 17 at The Inquirer. He has written about organized crime, the growth of the nation's nonprofits and the safety of the nation's blood supply. He is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner. He is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University and was a Neiman Fellow at Harvard University. Anthony R. Wood has been a reporter and editor for more than 25 years. He is The Inquirer's resident weather expert. He has reported extensively about the impact of the region's climate and reported on storm's and hurricanes that have struck the Atlantic coast. He attended Temple University and was a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow at the University of Michigan.