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News from SCB
CHECKING PAGE PROOFS FOR GOOD NIGHT IRENE
Apr. 25, 2012 -- We are currently checking the printer's page proofs for "Good Night Irene," which is on schedule for June publcation.
GOOD NIGHT IRENE IS AT THE PRINTER
Apr. 16, 2012 -- "Good Night Irene" is at the printer! We sent it out today and we expect of have copies for sale in mid-June. Thanks to everyone who preordered copies and reserved copies at book stores. We promise it will be worth the wait!
EMBATTLED BRATTLEBORO RETURNS!
Mar. 31, 2012 -- Dave Eisenstader's follow-up to "The Weight of the Ice," is the incredible story of Brattleboro, Vermont's seemingly endless series of woes, including fires, murders and a flood in 2011. It's called "Embattled Brattleboro" and Surry Cottage Books is pleased to have it back in our production calendar! You can read more about it, including the endorsement by Brattleboro author Archer Mayor here. Look for the book this summer!
MICHEAL RYAN JOINS THE GOOD NIGHT IRENE TEAM
Mar. 10, 2012 -- Michael Ryan is a reporter for the Catskill Daily Mail who covered Irene from the first day on Aug. 28 and has written scores of stories about the hard-hit Prattsville area. He joins award-winning author Craig Brandon and Vermont expert Nicole Garman. Look for the book to arrive in book shops and gift stores around June 1.
BOOK WILL AID FLOOD VICTIMS
Mar 7, 2012 -- Surry Cottage Books plans to offer copies of Good Night Irene to flood relief agencies at cost to raise money to help victims. We expect they will receive about $10 for every copy they sell.
BUY OUR BOOKS DIRECTLY
Nov. 18 -- You can now order our books online direct from us! Check out our new Online Store link above. It uses PayPal, but you can also use your credit card. Please let us know how this works!
BRATTLEBORO BOOK ON HOLD
Nov. 17 - Due to circumstances beyond our control we have been forced to withdraw the Embattled Brattleboro book until further notice. Watch this space for updates on this book.
SELF-PUBLISH WITH US
We have some slots available for self-publishers. If you have written a book you want to publish and promote yourself, get in touch with us and we will walk you through the process. Take a look at our Pumpelly Press page for details.
Coming in June
cover image: Evelyn Rikard, Ella Trec and Dave Rikard of Prattsville NY watch as an excavator destroys the remains of their house, which was severely damaged by Tropical Storm Irene. Photo by Hans Pennink (FEMA)
Good Night Irene
Stories and photos about the tropical storm that devastated Vermont, the Catskills and the Berkshires
By Craig Brandon, Nicole Garman and Michael Ryan
Foreword by Philip C. Camp, publisher of the Vermont Standard
Publication Date: 06/01/12
ISBN: 978-0-9829853-2-8
300 Pages with more then 200 photos, including 16 pages in full color, 6 X 9 quality paperback, distributed by Baker & Taylor and North Country Books or order direct from the publisher. $24.95.
For eight hours on an August Sunday, Tropical Storm Irene created a flash flood of Biblical proportions, sweeping away houses, bridges, highways, cars and shops in three states. Historic covered bridges that had stood for a century and a half were washed away in the torrent of water. Communities became isolated islands when bridges fell and the only way to get in or out was by helicopter. National Guard Humvees patroled the once quiet streets.
Writers, bloggers and photographers from throughout the storm-damaged regions of Vermont, the Catskills and the Berkshires share their stories and photographs in this new offering from Surry Cottage Books. It tells the stories of hundreds of victims and how they survived the flood of a lifetime.
Read about two artists, one a painter and the other a quilter, who watched on YouTube as their studios floated away down the river. Visit with the residents of Schoharie NY and Waterbury VT where hundreds of homes were flooded with water and mud and had to be rebuilt. Listen to the residents of Prattsville, NY, describe the near elimination of their town when torrents of water ran down Main Street. Or read the story of Susan Hammond of Lower Bartonsville, Vermont, who became an international celebrity when she captured on video the collapse of the historic Bartonsville Covered Bridge and posted it on YouTube. Read about the Vermont Standard newspaper, which maintained its 158-year tradition of never missing a issue, despite the fact that its computers and offices were lost in the flood and there was no electricity or telephone service.
The book is full of stories about resilient neighbors helping each other through a time of extreme difficulty, sorting thorugh the wreckage, helping each other to clean the mud from their homes, rebuild and offer shelter to the suddenly homeless in communities from the Catskills to the Green Mountains.
Using photographs, essays and old-fashioned New England story telling, the survivors of the disaster share with readers what it was like to endure the storm of a lifetime, creating an historical document that will be treasured and passed on to their descendants.
Among the communities we are covering in detail are Brattleboro, Wilmington, Rochester, Waterbury and Woodstock in Vermont, as well as a chapter on the Catskills towns of Prattsville and Windham; Schoharie, NY and the Mohawk Trail from Williamstown to Greenfield in Massachusetts.
NOTE: A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to recovery efforts throughout Vermont and the Catskills.
Good Night Irene tells the stories of a dozen covered bridges detroyed or damaged by Irene.
"From my Window" by Wilmington, Vermont painter Jim McGrath, painted on Aug. 28, 2011 as Tropical Storm Irene flooded the town. To purchase a copy, vist his web site: McGrathergallery.com. copyright 2011 Jim McGrath, used by permission.
The ruins of a house in Burtonville NY along the Schoharie Creek after Irene.
Schoharie Creek Valley in the Catskills Severely Damaged
As bad as Irene was in Vermont, the Catskills clearly had it even worse. In towns like Prattsville, Schoharie, Middleburg and Blenheim, nearly every building in town was damaged, leaving hundreds homeless. And, unlike Vermont, many of the buildings remain unusable months later. Downtown business remain closed. Many residents have packed up and left rather than deal with the damage. Houses assessed for $100,000 are being sold for $8,000.
So many people have left that the towns and schools are worried that there will not be enough tax base left to support them. Blenheim lost its historic covered bridge, the world's longest. The county offices, sheriff's deparment and jail were all flooded and had to be relocated
While dozens of the most damaged buildings have been torn down, houses that look fine from the street are actually shells with their insides gutted. Residents live on the upper stories or, if it is a ranch house, they have been abandoned. At night there are few lights on in the village of Schoharie.
Irene no match for Vermont Standard's journalists
Upholding a 158-year tradition, the reporters and editors at the Vermont Standard in Woodstock, Vermont printed the edition of the paper above just five days after Irene trashed their offices, drowned their computers, turned off the electricity and telephones, and cut out major sections of the highway. The story of how they did it is in the new book Good Night Irene.
Famous Icon of the Prattsville Disaster
Anastasia Rikard's yellow house in Prattsville NY became a symbol of the Irene destruction there when it was featured on the front page of the New York Times and used as backdrop for television news crews from throughout the country. The cover of our book shows this house being demolished.
photo: Adam Dubrowa (FEMA)
photo: copyright 2011 by Lars Gange used by permission
The collapse of the Route 73 bridge over the White River south of Rochester cut off the residents of the "West Rochester Island," and they had to use a makeshift means to get across. First they used a dingy and rope system. Then there was a log and finally residents builf this wooden pedestrian bridge. Route 100 runs across the top of the photo and Route 73 is below. Early on, vandals spray painted "RIP" on the bridge's deck.
Weston Playhouse Theater
Irene was no friend to the arts. This baby grand piano was in the orchestra pit of the Weston Playhouse Theater in Vermont when the Irene-saturated West River flooded the theater with eight feet of water. Costumes, props and sets were ruined and set out in the town square to dry. But the show went on a week later in a modified version. Irene also destroyed the sets and props at the Williamstown Theater Festival's workshops and caused the first ever cancelation of a performance at Tanglewood in Lenox. You can read all about Irene's exploits in the arts in Good Night Irene.
Photo: Hans Pennink (FEMA)
Homeowners of flood-damaged buildings like this one in Schoharie, NY thought their problems were over when the flood waters receded, but they were actually just beginning. Water-soaked sheet rock and particle board is prime breeding space for black mold, a toxic substance that quickly takes over in flood-damaged buildings. You can read all about it in the book Good Night Irene.
page last updated Apr. 4,, 2012
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