Excerpt
Looking eastward across the valley, we could already see plumes of smoke coming from multiple locations. The sound of sirens filled the air in ever increasing volume. I tried to make some calls from my cell phone, but all I heard was the rapid chirping sound indicative of a failed call. Power lines were down, water mains were broken and spraying all over the street, cellular towers were knocked out of operation, and it would be only a matter of hours before Governor Schwarzenegger would be having Contra Costa County declared as a Federal Disaster Area. Sadly but surely, there would be fatalities. The attractive female realtor and I had joked around a little during and right after the event, but as we both looked across the shattered neighborhood toward Mount Diablo the shock began to set in. It was true that this town had changed much in the nearly twenty years since I had lived here, but even more profound changes had happened in those ninety seconds we sought refuge under my what had one time been my fathers’ old workbench.