In the Cauldron of Murder case the city of Seattle was battered by one of the worst storms in its history that caused many deaths and flooding throughout Seattle proper. If this wasn’t bad enough the storm was followed by an Earthquake at 12:01am, Monday, September 25th, 2006.

Black Monday as it came to be called caused death on an appalling scale in Seattle. The quake’s epicenter was Magnussen Park on the northern edge of the University District flattening much of the neighborhood but strangely leaving the University of Washington campus relatively intact. Capitol Hill was also spared much of the devastation and there is speculation in the supernatural community that Odianna of Winter might have used her power to protect it from the worst of the damage. This protection did not extend to the rest of the city however.

The hardest hit neighborhood’s include West Seattle and the Seattle Waterfront. The docks were almost completely destroyed as the combination of flooding and quake slammed them with the full fury of Puget Sound. This has devastated Seattle’s economy and is impacting the national economy as well. The West Seattle Bridge collapsed as did the Alaskan Way Viaduct downtown and parts of I-90.

Sadly, the Federal Government was very slow to react to the disaster. It took 3 days before the National Guard was sent in to aid the beleaguered city and start digging people out. The newly elected governor of Washington, Christine Gregoir, lobbied for a quicker reaction to the disaster but her pleas fell on deaf ears and she was plagued by finger pointing from her political opponents that left her with few options.

Luckily, Seattle is the home to quite a few industries (Microsoft, Boeing, Starbucks,etc.) which contributed to much of the city recovering faster than expected. It also didn’t hurt that William West and Trevor Radcliffe invested large amounts of their personal fortunes to aid in the rebuilding. Sadly, that didn’t prevent some of the poorer areas of the city from languishing into near anarchy. Especially sections of West Seattle that were effectively isolated with the collapse of the West Seattle Bridge. In the months following the disaster many have moved out of Seattle looking to start over in new cities all over the nation. The ones who stayed behind are left to face the daunting challenge of rebuilding the Emerald City.

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