Go to Hachette Book Group home

Search

Site Preferences

Show prices in:

Promotion

Use code BESTBOOKS24 for 25% off sitewide + free shipping over $35

By clicking “Accept,” you agree to the use of cookies and similar technologies on your device as set forth in our Cookie Policy and our Privacy Policy. Please note that certain cookies are essential for this website to function properly and do not require user consent to be deployed.

Island in a Storm

A Rising Sea, a Vanishing Coast, and a Nineteenth-Century Disaster that Warns of a Warmer World

Island in a Storm Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Abby Sallenger

Formats and Prices

Price

$16.99

Price

$21.99 CAD

Format

ebook

Format:

ebook $16.99 $21.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around June 2, 2009. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

Also available from:

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.

Genre:

On Sale
Jun 2, 2009
Page Count
304 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9780786741526

You May Also Like

Covert City
Covert City $30.00 $39.00 CAD
In the Pines
In the Pines $29.00 $37.00 CAD
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist
The Cadaver King and the Country Dentist $19.99 $24.99 CAD
We’re Still Here Ya Bastards
We’re Still Here Ya Bastards $32.00 $40.00 CAD
Rising Tide
Rising Tide $17.00 $19.00 CAD

Abby Sallenger

About the Author

Abby (Asbury) Sallenger received his BA in Geology and PhD in Marine Science from the University of Virginia and is the former chief scientist of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Center for Coastal Geology. He presently leads the USGS Storm Impact research group, investigating how the coast changes during extreme storms, such as hurricanes Isabel, Ivan, Katrina, and Ike. As an undergraduate at U.Va., Abby was a student athlete, playing four years of intercollegiate football. He and his wife live in Florida.

Learn more about this author