Shake it Up, Baby

There was no twisting or shouting though, well, maybe shouting, but mostly just a lot of shaking when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake, centered 350 miles from Milwaukee in southeast Illinois, rattled many local and surrounding communities early this morning.

According to the news, calls were pouring into the National Weather Service from as far north as Peshtigo, claiming that they felt the ground shaking. This is pretty amazing considering the quake’s core was about six miles from West Salem, Illinois.

I’m sure you’ve already heard the breaking news, but if you missed it, you can read more about it here.

This event is so extraordinary that I wish I could chime in and tell a story about my bookshelf vibrating or something, but instead I'll share a couple accounts from other locals.

A friend of mine who lives in an apartment complex downtown near the lakefront said she woke up roughly around 4:30 a.m. when she felt a tremor that caused her bed to shake. Local news reports state that the quake happened just before 4:37 a.m. and seismic activity lasted for about 20 seconds.

“I woke up, but I didn’t know what woke me up,” said my co-worker, Melinda, as we talked about the recent news. Melinda lives in Racine and said she noticed her paintings hanging crooked on her walls this morning. I thought that was funny.

Did you feel it? If so, tell me about it.

While many people, even Milwaukee residents, were startled by the shaking, I was sleeping like a rock. This was the first sizable earthquake in the Midwest and I slept through it! Dang. I’m an extremely light sleeper too... a fly could land on my windowpane and I'd probably hear it. Seriously.

Interestingly, I vaguely remember my cat waking up early and sitting on the windowsill yelling at me, though. She usually sleeps throughout the night and only wakes up to beg for food once my alarm buzzes. Animal lovers claim that house pets are psychic when it comes to sensing unusual occurrences like earthquakes. “They can feel it,” my sister contends. I don’t know if Lucy can predict or feel the phenomena of nature, but sure, why not? After all, she actually noticed it.

This news is fascinating to me because Midwestern residents aren’t really accustomed to such a large temblor. We often hear about the faults under California and out West, but we rarely get word of potential quakes around here.

Local reports and the U.S. Geological Survey says that the earthquake rocked the Illinois-Ozark dome region, which covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas, and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis.

The U.S. Geological Survey’s website also insists that earthquakes occur irregularly in this area. In fact, the largest historical earthquake in the region – a level of 5.4 on the Rector Scale – caused damage in southern Illinois in 1968, but that’s the last notable quake around that fault line.

Interesting? I think so.

This morning’s quake also shook skyscrapers in Chicago’s Loop, 240 miles north of the epicenter, and 450 miles northwest in Des Moines; as well as, in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of it. Fortunately, out this way there were no reports of injuries or significant damage besides fallen soup cans and picture frames and an early morning stir.

How crazy is that?

Comments

[wfbdoglover]

Considering I was one hour and twenty five minutes into my zzzz's... I didn't feel a thing... if there was anything this far North of you and your friend, Karen.

I was visiting my grandparents as a young child. I remember waking up to the pull out couch shaking. My grandparents lived in a mobile home park and I thought someone hitched us up to a truck and we were moving. (totally not possible with this type of home)

Anyhow, as I asked if we were moving, something fell and broke and my grandmother calmly stated that this was an earthquake and then it was over pretty close to her finishing speaking.

It was 3 something as a measurement, so I can only imagine how this one felt.

A bit scarey, but kinda cool non-the less.

[wfbdoglover]

All right the 10 year old (11 on Monday)
said he woke up to the shaking. He said his bed was shaking and his lampshade was to close to the window and was hitting the blind. He heard it rattling. He also said the dog came into his room. :)

[Karen]

Wow, his bed shook?!

I'm surprised I slept through this one, especially since it was a magnitude of 5.2. I've never felt an earthquake and never thought I'd hear of one shaking up Wisconsin. It's so crazy!

[Amanda]

Like your co-worker, I woke up around that time (I think) but didn't know why I woke up. Maybe it really was due to the earthquake...

[Suzieq]

Apparently I was sound asleep because I live in Kenosha and didn't feel a thing. Actually, I didn't even know about it until I watched the 10 p.m. news that day. One might say I live under a rock, which might be the reason why I didn't feel it.