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the only book devoted solely to this record-setting flood on the Delaware River and many of its tributaries, still not superseded despite several large flood events in the 60 years since it happened.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