Author Michael J Tougias Gripping Powerpoint Presentation

Michael Tougias to Present Slide Presentation on
Rescue Swimmer’s Incredible Heroics

Author Michael Tougias will appear at the Vineyard Haven Library on September 17 at 7pm
to give a slide presentation on his new book
A Storm Too Soon:  A True Story of
Disaster, Survival and Incredible Rescue.   The dramatic and inspiring program
is free, open to the public, and suitable for all ages.
(A Storm Too Soon will be featured on ABC Television’s 20/20)

Tougias will chronicle how seventy
foot waves batter a tattered life raft 250 miles out to sea in one of the
world’s most dangerous places, the Gulf Stream.  Hanging onto the raft are three men, a
Canadian, a Brit, and their captain, JP DeLutz, a dual citizen of America and France.  The waves repeatedly toss the men out of
their tiny vessel, and JP, with 9 broken ribs, is hypothermic and on the verge
of death.  The captain, however, is a
tough minded character, having survived a sadistic, physically abusive father
during his boyhood, and now he’s got to rely on those same inner resources to
outlast the storm. 

Trying to reach these survivors
before it’s too late are four Coast Guardsmen battling hurricane force winds in
their Jayhawk helicopter. They know the waves in Gulf
Stream will be extreme, but when they arrive they are astounded to
find crashing seas of seventy feet, with some waves topping eighty feet.  To lower the helicopter and then drop a
rescue swimmer into such chaos is a high risk proposition. The pilots wonder if
they have a realistic chance of saving the sailors clinging to the broken life
raft, and if they will be able to retrieve their own rescue swimmer from the
towering seas.  Once they commit to the
rescue, they find themselves in almost as much trouble as the survivors, facing
several life and death decisions. 

Three other vessels with 10 people
aboard were caught in the storm, and only 6 survived.  Four Rhode Islanders perished on the sailboat
Flying Colours.  This 2007 disaster prompted one of the
largest and most intense rescue in Coast Guard history.

Author Michael Tougias will use
slides of the storm, the survivors, and the rescue.  Amazingly the Coast Guard helicopter crew
photographed the men in the raft being pounded by towering waves.

    “I enjoy doing these programs,” says
Tougias, “because I like to transport the audience into the heart of the storm
so that they ask themselves ‘what would I have done.’  I don’t like to do author readings because I
think they are boring, but with a slide presentation, the viewer can visually
relive the adventure.  It’s like watching
a movie with the author giving behind the scene details.” A book signing will
follow the program, and the presentation is suitable for all ages.