Can people change? What about in the wake of a terrible disaster?

I think they can and will, but not all of them, and that is what The Exiles is about. Who changed, who didn't change and what happened to the people afterward as a sought a safe sanctuary.

In this thriller, a well-intentioned thermo-electric energy project at Yellowstone inadvertently triggers a supervolcano eruption that is going to destroy most of the United States.

In the aftermath of this catastrophe, unlikely groups of people are drawn together as they make their escape. Some people perform unprecedented acts of generosity and bravery, others commit appalling acts of depravity and violence, and some are seemingly unaffected. This novel chronicles these changes or lack of it in several disparate groups of people as they make their escape to the Pacific island of Tuvalu.

It tracks the exploits of a billionaire and his friend that initiated the disaster, a busload of children with Down Syndrome, violent convicted killers, virtuous Amish families, dockworkers, deckhands, boat crewmen, Pacific Islanders, and even some US Navy enlisted personnel and officers.