Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

60th Anniversary Edition

August 18-20, 1955: Three terrifying days and nights still remembered with awe in the Delaware River Valley between New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Record-breaking rainfall—nearly two feet in some places—from twin hurricanes just five days apart abruptly ended a withering drought, but the relief was short-lived. It was overshadowed by terror and destruction that tore away bridges and snatched people, still sleeping, from their beds in the middle of the night.

Devastation on the Delaware is the only book devoted solely to this record-setting flood on the Delaware River and many of its tributaries, still not superseded despite several large flood events in the 60 years since it happened. Author Mary A. Shafer interviewed more than a hundred survivors and eyewitnesses to bring the events to chilling life in this definitive account of a tragic weather disaster that changed life in the Delaware Valley forever. Now in its updated and revised third edition, this unique historical account has sold more than 6,500 copies and continues to be our best-selling title.

This comprehensive documentary covers the most heavily affected areas on both sides of the river between Port Jervis, New York and Trenton, New Jersey. Also covered are some areas not directly on the river, but along some of the wilder tributaries in its watershed, including 

  • Analomink, PA on the Brodhead Creek
  • Scranton, PA between the Lackawanna River and Roaring Brook
  • Hawley, PA along the Middle Creek
  • Honesdale, PA along the Dyberry Creek 
  • Branchville, NJ below the Culver Lake Dam

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • Finalist in both Best History Title and Best Regional Nonfiction categories of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards competition
  • Finalist in both the U.S. History and Nature Writing categories of the 2006 USABookNews Annual Awards competition
  • Named Notable Book in the Reference category of the 2006 Writers Notes Magazine Annual Book Awards

“In the tradition of Isaac’s Storm and The Johnstown Flood, Mary A. Shafer’s Devastation on the Delaware is a meticulously researched, compellingly written account of a major meteorological catastrophe. The stories of innocent people swept away in raging flood waters—some of them taken by surprise in the middle of the night or carried off while would-be rescuers extended helping hands—will haunt me. The prose is crisp, the photos mesmerizing. Anyone who watches ‘Storm Stories’ on The Weather Channel will find this an electrifying read.”
-- David Laskin, author of The Children’s Blizzard and Braving the Elements

1122631302
Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

60th Anniversary Edition

August 18-20, 1955: Three terrifying days and nights still remembered with awe in the Delaware River Valley between New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Record-breaking rainfall—nearly two feet in some places—from twin hurricanes just five days apart abruptly ended a withering drought, but the relief was short-lived. It was overshadowed by terror and destruction that tore away bridges and snatched people, still sleeping, from their beds in the middle of the night.

Devastation on the Delaware is the only book devoted solely to this record-setting flood on the Delaware River and many of its tributaries, still not superseded despite several large flood events in the 60 years since it happened. Author Mary A. Shafer interviewed more than a hundred survivors and eyewitnesses to bring the events to chilling life in this definitive account of a tragic weather disaster that changed life in the Delaware Valley forever. Now in its updated and revised third edition, this unique historical account has sold more than 6,500 copies and continues to be our best-selling title.

This comprehensive documentary covers the most heavily affected areas on both sides of the river between Port Jervis, New York and Trenton, New Jersey. Also covered are some areas not directly on the river, but along some of the wilder tributaries in its watershed, including 

  • Analomink, PA on the Brodhead Creek
  • Scranton, PA between the Lackawanna River and Roaring Brook
  • Hawley, PA along the Middle Creek
  • Honesdale, PA along the Dyberry Creek 
  • Branchville, NJ below the Culver Lake Dam

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • Finalist in both Best History Title and Best Regional Nonfiction categories of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards competition
  • Finalist in both the U.S. History and Nature Writing categories of the 2006 USABookNews Annual Awards competition
  • Named Notable Book in the Reference category of the 2006 Writers Notes Magazine Annual Book Awards

“In the tradition of Isaac’s Storm and The Johnstown Flood, Mary A. Shafer’s Devastation on the Delaware is a meticulously researched, compellingly written account of a major meteorological catastrophe. The stories of innocent people swept away in raging flood waters—some of them taken by surprise in the middle of the night or carried off while would-be rescuers extended helping hands—will haunt me. The prose is crisp, the photos mesmerizing. Anyone who watches ‘Storm Stories’ on The Weather Channel will find this an electrifying read.”
-- David Laskin, author of The Children’s Blizzard and Braving the Elements

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Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

by Mary A. Shafer
Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955

by Mary A. Shafer

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Overview

60th Anniversary Edition

August 18-20, 1955: Three terrifying days and nights still remembered with awe in the Delaware River Valley between New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. Record-breaking rainfall—nearly two feet in some places—from twin hurricanes just five days apart abruptly ended a withering drought, but the relief was short-lived. It was overshadowed by terror and destruction that tore away bridges and snatched people, still sleeping, from their beds in the middle of the night.

Devastation on the Delaware is the only book devoted solely to this record-setting flood on the Delaware River and many of its tributaries, still not superseded despite several large flood events in the 60 years since it happened. Author Mary A. Shafer interviewed more than a hundred survivors and eyewitnesses to bring the events to chilling life in this definitive account of a tragic weather disaster that changed life in the Delaware Valley forever. Now in its updated and revised third edition, this unique historical account has sold more than 6,500 copies and continues to be our best-selling title.

This comprehensive documentary covers the most heavily affected areas on both sides of the river between Port Jervis, New York and Trenton, New Jersey. Also covered are some areas not directly on the river, but along some of the wilder tributaries in its watershed, including 

  • Analomink, PA on the Brodhead Creek
  • Scranton, PA between the Lackawanna River and Roaring Brook
  • Hawley, PA along the Middle Creek
  • Honesdale, PA along the Dyberry Creek 
  • Branchville, NJ below the Culver Lake Dam

AWARDS & RECOGNITION

  • Finalist in both Best History Title and Best Regional Nonfiction categories of the 2011 National Indie Excellence Awards competition
  • Finalist in both the U.S. History and Nature Writing categories of the 2006 USABookNews Annual Awards competition
  • Named Notable Book in the Reference category of the 2006 Writers Notes Magazine Annual Book Awards

“In the tradition of Isaac’s Storm and The Johnstown Flood, Mary A. Shafer’s Devastation on the Delaware is a meticulously researched, compellingly written account of a major meteorological catastrophe. The stories of innocent people swept away in raging flood waters—some of them taken by surprise in the middle of the night or carried off while would-be rescuers extended helping hands—will haunt me. The prose is crisp, the photos mesmerizing. Anyone who watches ‘Storm Stories’ on The Weather Channel will find this an electrifying read.”
-- David Laskin, author of The Children’s Blizzard and Braving the Elements


Product Details

BN ID: 2940153378770
Publisher: Word Forge Books
Publication date: 07/22/2016
Sold by: Draft2Digital
Format: eBook
File size: 15 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Mary Shafer is a fulltime freelance writer who got actively started in the metal detecting hobby in 2004. It would have been sooner, as she received her first detector as a Christmas gift in 2001, but she was unable to figure out how to get started and this book wasn’t yet available to teach her how.

She lives and works in upper Bucks County, Pennsylvania, some of which has been settled since the late 1600s. This fact alone makes her area ripe for the avid metal detectorist, and indeed, some of the coins she has found since rela- tively early in her activity as a digger helped sharpen her interest in the pursuit.

Mary doesn’t consider herself an expert digger by any stretch, but has been digging long enough to know a few helpful things while remembering her challenges getting started in the hobby. After looking around and still not seeing a beginners’ guide that could be quickly digested and help newbies get out there and start swinging their detectors, she thought it was time someone wrote one. Hence, this book.

Mary is a proud member of Carla Autin’s “Women Diggers” group on Facebook, where she enjoys sharing her finds and those of her fellow “dig sisters,” and learning from them all.

Mary hosts her own Facebook digger page, “Metal Detecting and Treasure Hunting,” at facebook.com/MetalDetectingAndTreasureHunting, and she blogs on the topic at this book’s official website, Detecting101.com.

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