All That Crumbles: A Cascadian Earthquake Novel is One Second After, but without the gun violence. Earthquakes are the greatest ghost stories ever told. They are suddenly everywhere around us, unseen but for the destruction they cause. As a CERT volunteer, Bridget Good hopes this story inspires you to get 2-Weeks-Ready. There is a ghost on our horizon.
A megathrust earthquake rips through the Pacific Northwest, destroying Brooke Halliwell’s home. Her intended haven becomes a nightmare when she finds her best friend’s lifeless body trapped beneath an oak entertainment center. Panicked, Brooke searches for the friend’s three-year-old daughter, Maddie, and finds the toddler crying in a snow-covered grove. Brooke scoops Maddie up.
In the ruined city, Brooke’s neighbors have joined other refugees in search of a shelter. After several days on their own, Brooke realizes she and Maddie will starve without help. They move through the waste and death-filled streets, managing to catch a break when Brooke’s love interest lies to get her and Maddie into a shelter.
But windstorms thrash, and desperation plagues the city. Some will do anything for food and water. Even if it means holding a toddler hostage.
While All That Crumbles is a work of fiction, the Cascadia Subduction Zone poses a very real threat to communities across the Pacific Northwest. According to research headed by Oregon State University Professor Chris Goldfinger, 46 Cascadia Subduction Zone megathrust earthquakes have occurred during the past 10,270 years, which averages out to one every 223 years. By January 2022, our region will have gone 322 years without one.
After a megathrust earthquake, the Willamette Valley is expected to go 50 days without natural gas, 100 days without electricity, and a whopping 400 days without running water/sewer. Help from outside the disaster zone won’t arrive for at least two weeks, yet only about five percent of the Willamette Valley population is prepared to be self-sufficient for that amount of time. Be ready so that you don’t become one of many victims in need of saving.