"September 25, 1985. The worst storm in half a century is headed toward the United States, her point of landfall - Fire Island, a thirty-mile-long sandbar hugging the shore of Long Island. As Hurricane Gloria approached, the East Coast was evacuated for hundreds of miles north and south. But on Fire Island itself, ten people refused to leave." "In this remarkable work of nonfiction, John Jiler tells the story of those people. A gay man with AIDS stayed because he had nothing left to lose, and at the height of the storm stood on a dune and watched, unafraid. One pair of friends tried to endure the storm with deep, meditative prayer; another trio, with a wild, chattering cocktail party. Also on the island lay the Sunken Forest, an ancient woods teeming with birds, plant, and animal life that was no less profoundly threatened by the power of Gloria." "In this literary tour de force, Jiler combines the results of in-depth interviews with the survivors with detailed knowledge of the unique social and natural history of Fire Island to produce a panoramic account of nature in its inexplicable, sublime fury."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved