The following is an excerpt from our April issue:
By Jonathan Lindberg
This account is to be taken as pure hypothesis and is by no means intended as absolute fact. The truth is, no one can accurately describe what effect a massive earthquake might have on Memphis. This is simply a possibility. A special thanks to Gary Patterson at the University of Memphis Earthquake Research Center, along with the University of Memphis Engineering Department, as well as the Shelby County Public Works office who realizes we are presently ill-prepared for an earthquake. They are finally taking an aggressive approach to solving this massive oversight.
It took forty-seven seconds for the Pyramid to collapse. That was exactly how long the Memphis Earthquake lasted. Forty-seven seconds and it was done. The Pyramid actually withstood the tremors. It wobbled back and forth. Pipes busted, paneling fell, but the building stood. It was liquefaction that got the Pyramid. Thirty-one seconds into the Memphis Earthquake and the ground suddenly turned to quicksand. The Pyramid slumped to one side. The west half of the building became disjointed and began to pull away. Then the east half collapsed in on itself.
Robert Dawson, 43, watched the whole thing happen. Robert worked for the City of Memphis in the Parks Department. He was preparing flower beds along the Main Street Trolley line near the Cook Convention Center when the big-one hit that Tuesday. He had dug his shovel into the ground when the tremors began. For one brief second Robert thought he had triggered something himself. Then he was thrown to the ground as a chorus of bricks on the sides of buildings began falling and crashing to the ground.
It was the sound from the Pyramid that caused Robert to turn around on his back. He turned just in time to see the far side of the building disconnect and the east side sink into the ground. Behind him, a five-story building on Second Street, unreinforced masonry, fell apart and collapsed into rubble. Several buildings of similar design along Second and Third Streets crumbled and fell. Some were office buildings and apartments which were occupied. It was as if the structures had been built from Lincoln Logs and been tipped upside down. (more…)
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