“Devastation on the Delaware” Book Highlights Eerie Similarities Between Present Hurricane Disasters and Record-Setting Flood of 1955

Unusually warm Atlantic Ocean waters spawn a disastrous hurricane season. Hurricanes cause massive flooding and break all-time damage records. Hundreds of people dead, many missing, and thousands left homeless to face the coming winter. The Gulf Coast in 2005? No: The Delaware River Valley in 1955.

Ferndale, PA (PRWEB) June 2, 2006 -- Unusually warm Atlantic Ocean waters spawn a disastrous hurricane season. Hurricanes cause massive flooding and break all-time damage records. Hundreds of people are dead, many missing, and thousands are left homeless to face the coming winter.

The Gulf Coast in 2005? No: The Delaware River Valley in 1955, when training hurricanes Connie and Diane dropped up to two feet of rain inside a five-day period, unleashing the waterway's record-setting flood disaster.

The 2006 hurricane season upon us, with experts saying that the northeastern U.S. is overdue for another direct hurricane hit, and meteorologists predicting no fewer than three major hurricanes to track along the East Coast. In her newest book, "Devastation on the Delaware: Stories and Images of the Deadly Flood of 1955," Author Mary A. Shafer points up many similarities between last year’s catastrophic hurricane season and that of fifty years ago. The book also explains why it can -- and likely will -- happen again.

August 18-20, 1955: Three terrifying days and nights still remembered with awe in the Delaware River Valley. Record-breaking rainfall — almost two feet in some places — from twin hurricanes 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.

Tributaries swelled unbelievably, some rising thirty feet in fifteen minutes. Eventually, they all poured into the Delaware, transforming the usually placid waters into a raging, uncontrollable beast. Mountain resorts were indundated, leaving cars up-ended in swimming pools. Entire summer camps and vacation colonies were washed away. Hundreds of children were evacuated by helicopter from island camps in a tense, unprecedented operation.

In the end, nearly a hundred people were dead, dozens missing, and hundreds more left homeless. Victims' bodies were still being recovered thirty years later. Some were never found.

Interviews with more than a hundred survivors and eyewitnesses combine with dozens of historic photos to bring these events to chilling life, in this first comprehensive account of a tragic event that changed life in the Delaware Valley forever.

The 456-page softcover book contains more than 100 black & white historical photographs of the event, some never before published. It retails for $19.95 and may be purchased at bookstores, retail establishments, or ordered direct from the publisher at its website, http://www.55flood.com. Booksellers can order through Baker & Taylor.

Fifty cents from each copy sold is donated to the Delaware RiverKeeper Network, to support their ongoing advocacy on behalf of the Delaware’s environmental health.

Questions should be directed to the publisher, Word Forge Books, at 610-847-2456.

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