Friday, April 18, 2008

earthquake this morning

{the SF, 1906 earthquake}

"On April 18th at 5:36AM EDT a 5.2 magnitude earthquake struck southeastern Illinois. The epicenter was located approximately 5 miles northwest of Mt. Carmel, Illinois, 38 miles north-northwest of Evansville, Indiana, and 128 miles east of St. Louis, Missouri. The earthquake was felt throughout Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky, and as far away as Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin."

This was the weirdest earthquake I've ever been in, and I've experienced my fair share. Jan & I were asleep in the basement when we awoke to this loud thundering roar - I was sure it was a tornado, and the roof was about to fly off. It was worse being in a no window area, when we opened our eyes, it was still as black as when we were sleeping. Then I felt the shaking, the noise subsided, and I was comforted by the gentle sway of the earth. Earthquake. Cool. I know those. Tornado? Now that would freak me out. We went upstairs to talk it out w/his parents, watched it on the news, and went back to bed. About 11:30am, the aftershock came. No roar this time, just regular shaking. The epicenter was about 30 miles west of here, so we felt the first one pretty strong. No damage, but a few little items off a wall shelf flew off a few feet. It's strange to move across the country only to find out that a natural disaster you left, has followed you.

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