please help me welcome gilbert gaul. [applause] >> i want to start with you and where you got involved. why the coast and why does it matter to you personally? >> my background is numbers and economics but also literature so i combined writing and economic analysis and most of the things i looked at in my career. i grew up in new jersey not in a wealthy family, we always managed to go to the coast during the summer and so i became exposed to it right away and in 1962, this is the genesis of this book. when i was 11 years old, in 1962 there was a storm in the mid-atlantic all the ash wednesday storm in the first week of lent. it was one of 2 bookends storms that defined what happened on the mid-atlantic coast. the ash wednesday storm and hurricane sandy in 2012. it is almost the seventh anniversary of sandy and these two storms both obliterated our coast particularly new jersey. i saw that as an 11-year-old and in 57 years of going to one barrier island called long beach island, the largest, there you go. the largest and

please help me welcome gilbert gaul. [applause] >> i want to start with you and where you got involved. why the coast and why does it matter to you personally? >> my background is numbers and economics but also literature so i combined writing and economic analysis and most of the things i looked at in my career. i grew up in new jersey not in a wealthy family, we always managed to go to the coast during the summer and so i became exposed to it right away and in 1962, this is the genesis of this book. when i was 11 years old, in 1962 there was a storm in the mid-atlantic all the ash wednesday storm in the first week of lent. it was one of 2 bookends storms that defined what happened on the mid-atlantic coast. the ash wednesday storm and hurricane sandy in 2012. it is almost the seventh anniversary of sandy and these two storms both obliterated our coast particularly new jersey. i saw that as an 11-year-old and in 57 years of going to one barrier island called long beach island, the largest, there you go. the largest and

. >> i'm so sorry, we reached the end of our time but i want to thank gilbert gaul so much, please buy lots of presents for the holiday