Island in a Storm: A Rising Sea, a Vanishing Coast, and a Nineteenth-Century Disaster that Warns of a Warmer World
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ISBN13: 9781586485153Condition: NEWNotes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Isle Derniere was emerging as an exclusive summer resort on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. About one hundred miles from New Orleans, it attracted the most prominent members of antebellum Louisiana society. Hundreds of affluent planters and merchants retreated to the island, not just for its pleasures, but also to escape the scourge of yellow fever epidemics that ravaged cities like New Orleans each summer. Then, without warning, on August 10, 1856, a ferocious hurricane swept across the island, killing half of its four hundred inhabitants. The Isle Derniere was left barren, except for a strange forest standing in the surf. Drawing from a rich trove of newspaper articles, letters, diaries, and interviews, Abby Sallenger re-creates the chain of events that led a group of people to seek refuge on an exposed strip of land in the sea. He chronicles the dramatic course of the hurricane itself, as seen through the eyes of a diverse cast of real-life characters, including eighteen-year-old Emma Mille, her French father, a steamboat captain, a pastor, and a slave. Island in a Storm is the story of their bravery and cowardice, luck and misfortune, life and death. At the heart of this narrative lies another, equally compelling, story. Sallenger, an oceanographer, traces the insidious link between the environmental deaths across the Mississippi delta and the human deaths that occurred when the storm swept ashore. The result is a fascinating portrait of a coast in perpetual motion and a rising sea that made the Isle Derniere particularly vulnerable to a great hurricane. Ultimately, Island in a Storm is a cautionary environmental tale. Global warming is spreading the unique hazards of river deltas to coasts around the world, and the signs of what happened to Isle Derniere may soon be appearing on other islands. The account of this nineteenth-century disaster and its aftermath offers a vital historical lesson as we continue to develop precarious coastal locations whose vulnerability will only grow as sea levels rise across the globe.
Spotlight Customer Reviews:
Summary:
Good enough to purchase another copy
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Comment:
This book was a wonderful; I couldn't put it down. I bought the first copy as a gift, but then had to have another for my personal liberary. I highly recommend this book as one that should raise our awareness of our responsibility to save our coastline.
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Summary:
Island in a Storm
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Comment:
I was excited to read this book, I grew up in Plaquemine, Louisiana. However I was so disappointed. I found that the arthur was all over the place. She would go from one topic to another, and back to the previous one. I have never read a book that jumped around like this one. It would have been a great book had she kept her topics together. I had a great time remembering places from my childhood as the arthur jumped around.
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Summary:
Island in A Storm
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Comment:
A well written and documented historical novel which was linked to the ever changing coast line. I liked the book but never saw any link to the 19th century disaster and the present.
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Summary:
A good read for people caught in a storm book lovers
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Comment:
I've read a number but certainly not all of the people caught in a storm books. I like Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History better than this book, because the writing in that book is better, the town being washed away was larger and it fit more with the Hurricane Katrina story that was happening when I read it. This book gives you a better feel for what is going to happen to coastal sand islands as the sea rises and storms attack the land. Well the waves do anyway.
The stories of the survivors of this storm are amazing. Again, it says to all of us, no matter how dire your situation is, don't give up hope, you may yet make it. To people thinking about riding out a major storm on a barrier island, it might be better to think again, and visit your aunt in Kansas you've been meaning to go see. To people thinking of building that dream home on the coast, perhaps a small sea shore cabin might make more economic sense. Something that if it washed away you'd be sad but not devastated by it's total loss.
Still a good read, from a respectable author. The guy does know what he's talking about when he tells you how the storm waves will take out your island.
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Summary:
Island In A Storm: A rising Sea, A Vanishing Coast and a 19th Century Disaster that Warns of a Warmer World
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Comment:
A riveting and scientific, well written account of nature at it's worst. Abby Sallenger may be a relatively new author but he is gifted and knowledgeable of his subject. He develops his characters and draws the reader into the events and circumstances surrounding the Last Island Storm of 1856. Readers of South Louisiana ancestry will relish this story.
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