Memphis 7.9 (Revised)

The novel Memphis 7.9 tells what happens to Memphis and the eastern United States, as seen through the eyes of those who are there, when a 7.9 magnitude earthquake strikes on the New Madrid Fault.

The story begins a week before the earthquake happens. Grad student Chris Nelson's computer model predicts a strong temblor, but his University advisor opposes making public predictions.

JQ McCrombie disbelieves any possibility of a major earthquake, and using bribes and low quality construction, makes a huge profit from the business of retrofitting highway bridges for earthquake safety.

People in Memphis and throughout the Mississippi Delta live with varying degrees of disregard, complacency, and ignorance of the dangers of the New Madrid Fault, only 45 miles northwest of the city.

The destined time arrives. In twenty-three and a half seconds, beginning at 9:34:09 CDT on a Saturday morning in May, a 70 mile fracture rips the earth's crust from Lepanto, Arkansas, under the Mississippi River, to Ridgely, Tennessee.

Over the next thirteen minutes seismic waves from the giant magnitude 7.9 temblor destroy the upper Mississippi River Delta, including Memphis, and wreak havoc across the eastern United States, from Chicago to New Orleans, from Kansas City to Cincinnati.

Ninety-one million people in twenty-two states feel the earth shake, hundreds of thousands are injured, tens of thousands are killed, millions are left homeless. Memphis is a lost city, cut off from the outside world.

Six hours after the great earthquake, the realization of the full extent of the disaster begins to set in. Rescue and recovery become paramount in a land still shaking with aftershocks.