Presentation, Book Signing Coincides with Start of 2009 Hurricane Season

WHO: The Historic New Orleans Collection and author/researcher Abby Sallenger

WHAT: Book Signing and Presentation of Island in a Storm (PublicAffairs, 2009)

WHEN: Saturday, May 30, 2009 • 2:00–4:00 p.m.



WHERE: The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Williams Research Center
410 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA



HOW: This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.hnoc.org.



WHY: Island in a Storm (PublicAffairs, 2009) is the true story of the people who faced a fierce hurricane that devastated Isle Derniere—once located off the Louisiana coast—on August 10, 1856. Sallenger’s work recounts the island citizens’ bravery and cowardice, luck and misfortune, life and death, while chronicling a coast in perpetual motion and a rising sea that made Isle Derniere particularly vulnerable to a great hurricane. The cautionary environmental tale reveals how global warming is spreading the unique hazards of river deltas to barrier islands around the world.

Asbury “Abby” Sallenger is a research oceanographer at the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Assessment of Coastal Change Hazards in Florida, which examines coastal-erosion hazards arising from extreme storms throughout the United States. In researching this work, Dr. Sallenger used resources available at The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Williams Research Center.

As the 2009 hurricane season nears, Dr. Sallenger will give a short presentation and sign copies of Island in a Storm, which will be available for purchase for $24.95.