Topic: EARTHQUAKE

[patches]

I received quite a rude awakening this morning!     We just got hit with a 5.4 earthquake!  The news reported it lasted 3 to 4 minutes.  I know it seemed like it was never going to stop.     

[Bonnie]

Wow at least you are okay. Let us know more about it.

[Tina]

I just saw that on my morning news and came in to see if you had posted about it. I bet it woke you. that is a good shaker you got and very long lasting.

[Penny]

So glad that you are ok Patti.......thansk for checking in!~

[Triss]

So glad you are ok Patti.  Sure do not expect to hear earthquake news from your area even though I know they do happen every few years there.  I am glad you are ok and hope everyone else is as well.

[Patty S]

How scary is THAT?! So, tell us about it!  Did anything fall of your shelves?  Did you lose power?

I've always wondered when the New Madrid fault line was going to wake up again!  Some 200 years ago, or so, it rerouted the Missouri & Mississippi rivers when it shifted... there are a lot more people around now, so can you imagine the devastation, if that were to happen again?   (And somebody would undoubtedly blame it on the current Administration!)

I was in Seattle for their "big one" in 1965 (6.5), & I never want to experience anything like that again! When it hit, a load of laundry was in my wringer washer on the back porch, & I was watching My Mom on TV, who was at a local morning show in the Space Needle when it hit!  

The sound was awful!  It sounded like a semi truck was coming through the house, as the floor rolled under our concrete/stucco home, things fell out of the cupboard & my washer flipped out into the yard... while I stood in the kitchen doorway, screaming "my baby!" as I watched 7 month-old Shelly zoom back & forth across the floor in her playpen with a big grin on her face!  I don't remember now, how long it lasted, but it seemed like it wasn't going to stop!

... AND local TV reception went dead!   My Mom said that one minute she saw Puget Sound, & the next minute she saw sky! (My Dad was working on a boat Lake Union, almost directly under the Space Needle, watching it sway!)  

In the end, none of us were hurt & the Space Needle was still standing, but it was sure hard on the nerves!  Mom hasn't been back to the Space Needle since that day, I had a lot of broken dishes & sticky messes to clean up from stuff that fell out of the refrigerator & cupboards, the wringer washer survived the fall, but we had to use the neighbors bathroom & kitchen for a week, till our landlord had plumbing repairs done & replaced our cracked toilet.

Just goes to show you, that there's really no "safe" place to live, so you'd better take care to have all your "ducks in a row"!

[patches]

Thanks so much for everyone's concern!!!   

Now, they're saying it was only 5.2 magnitude, but one of the strongest ever recorded in Illinois.  We've had some aftershocks today at up to 4.5.  Of course, none of this compares to what I experienced about 11:15 today because I was sure we were getting the BIG one!      I was on the 2nd floor at chorus practice for two of my grandson's and the kids were singing "The Gospel Train is Coming" and they were clapping their hands and stomping their feet for sound effects.  Well, the floor shook, the walls vibrated, and the windows rattled, so if an earthquake would have happened at that time, we probably wouldn't have even realized it.    Geesh, it might have even been picked up on the Ricter Scale.   

Actually, I had a few things fall and we didn't lose power, and from the overall reports I've heard the aftermath hasn't been that bad.    It's more just that really strange, eerie sensation in your stomach that's really hard to shake.    Of course, this is minuscule when you think about the one that occurred in the Bay area during the '89 World Series.  I can remember seeing the deadly devastation and I still have trouble comprehending what it must have been like for everone experiencing it. 

I've always wondered when the New Madrid fault line was going to wake up again!

   

Patty, they been saying that this earthquake is from the Wabash Valley Fault System and not the New Madrid Fault System, although it is an extension of New Madrid Fault, whatever that means.    Actually, I guess the only thing I really know about earthquakes is, I don't like them!!!      

there's really no "safe" place to live, so you'd better take care to have all your "ducks in a row"! 

Guess I have all my "ducks in a row" since I still have my Earthquake Survival Kit from years ago when someone predicted the BIG ONE from New Madrid was going to occur.  Of course, the food and snacks were eaten long ago.        

[patches]

Geesh, it might have even been picked up on the Ricter Scale. 

  This should have read "Richter Scale"! 

[jv]

Patti I am glad your safe and nothing lost. They said it was felt in Atlanta well why didn't I feel it we are a lot closer then Atlanta is. I have been through 2 both on west coast that was enough for me. Staying in Texas where it is safe only have Tornado's 100to 200 mph straight winds and up to baseball size hail . Humm come to think about it Texas isn't that safe after all, better think about New Mexico nothing (good or bad) ever happens there. 

[notherdigger]

    Glad to hear you are ok there, earthquakes are scary for sure.  Just another example how anything can happen anywhere at any time.  People always say "least we don't have earthquakes here/tornados here etc... We have had a few tornados out west here and earthquakes in places where they don't expect them and such so we had best be prepared for anything cause the weather and nature are getting pretty crazy all over.

[patches]

Well, notherdigger, I don't know where you live, but we get the tornadoes, flooding, ice storms and various other weather variables here too!     These are just things you learn to live with no matter where you live.    

[Dianna]

Patti, I am so glad that you are safe. I know it must have been scary....

You are right when you say that we learn to live with whatever no matter where we live. I love the Carolinas...

[patches]

Dianna, as it turned out it was more scary than dangerous!    Just one death as far as I know and that was closer to the epicenter.  Actually, there's been quite a few aftershocks, but we haven't felt a lot of them, but we had another one about 12:30 this afternoon that we felt.    I think probably the scariest part for me was being woke up by the earthquake and not quite comprehending exactly what was really happening at the time!.