This is a book about living on the edge. It is a book of survival stories—gripping accounts from those who have experienced major storms along the New Jersey Shore, woven together with contemporary news and you-are-there reports.
Originally published in 1993, this expanded second edition includes an extensive chapter on Superstorm Sandy, the most destructive storm to strike the region in generations. But readers who know only of Sandy may be amazed by the stories of the Shore's historic storms, especially the hurricane of 1944 or the March northeaster of 1962. Before modern building codes, flood insurance, evacuation orders, or reliable forecasts, these epic storms were as completely devastating.
This new edition updates other coastal weather events from recent years. And because development at the Jersey Shore continues apace—driven by a never-fading desire to live by the ocean, at a time when the climate is changing and the seas are rising—an afterword on the future of the Shore has been added.
Great Storms of the Jersey Shore
is dramatically illustrated with nearly 300 photographs, engravings, and graphics. Reproduced here, these images take on new life and provide a window through which we can view the past and appreciate both the horror and beauty of nature unleashed.
Within these pages the voices of those who have known the power of great coastal storms draw us in to a time and place where survival is uncertain. For those who have experienced such storms—as their stories reveal in this book—it is a defining moment in their lives.