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Memphis 7.9
Sam Penny, Escapees member and full-timer, has combined his experience as a traveler, his background in physics and geology, and his amateur interest in seismology to produce Memphis 7.9, a fictional account of what might happen if an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude were to hit Memphis, Tennessee. It is not a pretty picture!
Sam uses his very ordinary characters, not unlike his readers, to set the stage for the disaster. As a result, when the shaking begins, the reader will be afflicted as well “Please,” I pleaded in my mind with the author, “Don’t let anything happen to Chris, even if he is planning to ride it out at the epicenter.” It’s all there: the initial rumbling, the jolts, the broken freeway interchanges and bridge supports, buildings collapsing on themselves, fires raging, the Mississippi River breaking through the levees.
Sam states that he wanted to combine his retirement goal of writing fiction with his desire to warn people who have become complacent about the potential dangers. One of his characters—you can almost see this villain twirling the ends of his mustache while the audience is hissing—abuses his government funds for retrofitting freeways and buildings, resulting in unsafe structures. Unfortunately, he is probably not alone. “Can’t happen here; this isn’t California,” seems to be the motto for some place as remote from the West Coast as Memphis, Tennessee. But it can, and Memphis 7.9 paints the scenario in glaring detail.
Sam has created a work of fiction that will spur his readers to action and certainly make them aware of what could happen if they don't prepare for a potential disaster.
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