Black Mountain, NC – Newt Gingrich defends, and heartily recommends to a Washington Conference, the disturbing apocalyptic thriller currently on the NY Times best-sellers list, written by Dr. William Forstchen. One Second After (TOR/Forge Books) is the frightening account of what happens to a small town after every electrical device stops working. Mr. Gingrich and other prominent people are praising this book because it tells the terrifying story of what would happen to this country after an EMP (electro magnetic pulse) attack. One Second After has stirre d up quite a controversy on both sides of the political fence. Mr. Gingrich recently presented the facts outlined in the book to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee at their annual policy conference where he stressed that while the book is fiction, it is based on accurate facts and, most disturbing of all, this country has zero national strategy in place to respond to such a threat today. As Mr. Gingrich points out, it would take just three small nuclear weapons detonated at the right altitude and when the gamma rays interact with the earth’s atmosphere, it would wipe out all electricity production in the United States. An EMP attack would destroy, literally in one second, our highly complex electronic, transportation and communications infrastructure . The frightening result, according to congressional testimony, would be that upwards of 90% of all Americans would be dead within a year.
Dr. Forstchen’s One Second After is the story of a history professor at a small college in the mountains of western North Carolina; ex-military, single parent of two young daughters. With his military background he knows immediately what has happened after an EMP attack, while his neighbors believe it is just another power failure. However, grim reality soon sets in as refugees from nearby cities flock to the country. With no form of communication; pharmacies, hospitals and nursing homes run out of supplies; supermarket shelves are bare, and law and order heads toward complete collapse as thousands die and survivors scramble to stay alive. Not sure how long the small town can hold out without supplies or against the armed gangs who are pouring out of ravaged cities, and with only a few short months of insulin left for his youngest daughter, for this man and his family it becomes a descent into hell!
Dr. Forstchen, author of several NY Times best-sellers, was inspired to write this book after conversations with long-time friend and former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, who later introduced him to Congressman Roscoe Bartlett (R.,MD), head of the Congressional Investigative Committee on EMP and whose 2004 report declared an EMP attack presented the single biggest threat to America. Before the House Armed Services Committee, the Congressman endorsed Forstchen’s book in hopes that its searing, emotional story will arouse the American public to action before time runs out.
