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Press Release: September 7, 2004
Sam Penny's New Novel,
Broken River,
To Be Introduced At
National Earthquake Conference
New novel part of series that tells what happens when, not
if,
a magnitude 7.9 earthquake strikes on the New Madrid Fault
ST. LOUIS, September 7, 2004
- Sam Penny, author and lecturer, announced this week that his
new novel Broken River will be introduced at the 2004 National
Earthquake Conference (www.earthquakeconference.org) to be held
in St. Louis, Mo., on September 26-30, 2004.
"Broken River is Book 2
of The 7.9 Scenario," Penny says. "It tells the story
of two captains on the Mississippi River who bring their boats
loaded with passengers and refugees to safety after the central
United States is ravaged by the worst earthquake to strike the
country in nearly two hundred years. Their experiences tell what
to expect along our great waterways when a giant earthquake once
again wracks our land."
The theme of the 2004 National
Earthquake Conference is Strengthening America: Preparing for
Earthquakes and More. The Conference is sponsored by the Department
of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
and the U.S. Geological Survey.
The 7.9 Scenario is an analytical
study developed by Penny over the past seven years. "I used
government data to determine the impact of a giant New Madrid
Fault earthquake under the Mississippi River on the United States.
I was startled to find that my calculations showed that as many
as 80,000 people could die, 500,000 people could be injured,
and 10,000,000 people could be left homeless if a 7.9 magnitude
earthquake struck the Fault today."
Penny explains, "An earthquake
that size happened there 193 years ago. The chances are one in
ten that over half the people in the country will see a recurrence
of that event in their lifetimes. I decided to shine a light
on the impending danger as a work of fiction rather than non-fiction.
I felt writing a scientific treatise on the subject would be
a waste of time because most people on the street don't identify
with such works. Instead, I chose to approach the issue as a
set of fictional personal experiences based upon real information
I had garnered from my research."
Among Penny's conclusions is
that dams and levees making up the core of the central United
State's water control and transportation system would be destroyed
in a giant earthquake. The nation as a whole could lose as much
as 10% of its Gross Domestic Product overnight, enough to plunge
it into the worst depression it has ever seen.
In 2003 Penny published Memphis
7.9, Book 1 of The 7.9 Scenario. That novel describes the earthquake
in detail and its impact on the city of Memphis, only 45 miles
away from the fracture. He used scenes left on the cutting room
floor from the first book as the basis for Broken River. The
two books are companion novels, though one book does not require
the other.
The new book is a 6 by 9 inch
soft-cover trade book of 238 pages with five maps. It will be
on sale at the conference and can be ordered from www.the79scenario.com.
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