Cascadia

Cascadia - H.W. "Buzz" Bernard

Everytime I read one of Mr. Bernards books, I am amazed at how knowledgeable he is and how he can write a story that could very well and most likely will happen. "The Cascadia subduction zone, a 680-mile fault that runs 50 miles off the coast of the Pacific Northwest -- from Cape Mendocino in California to Vancouver Island in southern British Columbia -- has experienced a cluster of four massive earthquakes during the past 1,600 years." Cascadia starts out in the Clatsop Indian Village, January 1700, which is along the Oregon Coase near present day Seaside. Legend has it that Thunderbird and Whale is a story about a massive earthquake, Thunderbird and the huge tsunami, Whale that follows. This is a story that has been handed down amongst the tribe for over 300 years and it is predicted that another quake and tsunami is due again. Dr. Rob Elwood, a respected geologist has studied Cascadia extensively and is having nightmares about a huge earthquake. It is not a nightmare that happens once but happens frequently so it is actually a premonition. He wants to go public with his premonition but who will believe him? He struggles with this information but eventually does go public with it. People, of course, do not believe this will happen. Rob has predicted that this phenomenon will happen on the July 4th holiday. The holiday comes and goes and nothing happens until the next day. Rob and his son are caught in the hugest earthquake to take place but narrowly escape in an airplane. The devastation is horrible, the worst that anyone can imagine in the US. Rob ends up in a rescue mission that could not only kill him but the woman that he has rescued. With a cast of characters that you will like, a retired fighter pilot and the woman he jilted twenty-five years ago, to a black man who is looking for buried pirate treasure, you will get swept up, literally, into another nail-biting, edge of your seat story about nature's fury. Not only will you get involved in the story but you may even learn a bit of the force of nature that are earthquakes and tsunamis. Like I said before, once I get into one of Buzz Bernard's books, they are hard to put down. Well researched and edge of your seat unputdownable! If you like a story that is exciting, you absolutely have to read Cascadia. I loved it!