Earthquake !!

[beenie weenie]

I woke up this morning checked out the news and found out we had an earthquake about 5:30 this morning. I know I was awake at the time because Miss Samantha Kitty was pestering me to get up and give her Fancy Feast. But I didn't feel a thing. I called my sister about 45 minues away in Champaign and she said it woke her up from a dead sleep and "wiggled" her house a bit. She sounded really relieved and happy that we had an earthquake. A few days ago a friend of hers had passed away after a long battle with cancer and Sis had spent yesterday at the funeral. My sister claims to be a frequent victim of visitations of displaced souls who have passed on, she thought that her friend had visited to say her final goodbyes before passing over to the other side by shaking her bed and rattling the glasses in her china cabinet and was very relieved to hear it was an earthquake and not a haunting.
I should probably go outside and check the house to make sure I don't have any cracks in the brick or anything.

[katlady]

Okay as a native Californian, I can say it doesn't sound like a big quake so your house should be fine. Do you know the size? Here is the map. The one in the middle must be you. 6 miles from Bone Gap, IL 5.2 that has a nice shake to it enough to wake you up. The bigger the squares on the map the bigger the quake. Here is a link click on the square to get information. http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/.../N_America.php

[Luanne Russo]

Glad everyone is okay!! Wow does that map show all the earthquakes from last night only? That's a lot!!!

[katlady]

California, Alaska, and Hawaii have a lot of quake but the aren't large enough to even notice. The plates are always moving. The biggest quake I have been in was Loma Prieta 6.9 there is quite a difference in size as the quake gets bigger. Here is a link to information about the Loma Prieta quake, http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/...1989_10_18.php
BTW the World Series was on Oakland A's V San Francisco Giants the game was about to start so there were not as many people on the freeway. Baseball save a lot of lives that day. The Loma Prieta Earthquake killed 63 people most on the Cypress (double decker freeway) which colapsed. This quake happened 10/17/89 my hubby's 21 birthday.
Cypress 580 freeway

Bay Bridge

[Donna]

Some people here did feel the quake, I slept through it. Was a shaking feeling...Very weird.

[TravelMike]

It is not widely known that the largest quake in recorded history was in the midwest. California has lots of smaller ones with a large jolt like 1989, causing major problems. If my history is correct the midwest quake I read about changed the path of the Mississippi river. Mike

[bahamamomma]

Two of the officers I work with here at Ft Leavenworth, Kansas, which sits on the Missouri River, felt the quake this morning. One from Australia said it felt as though someone was at the foot of his bed shaking it. I live another 5 mi west and south of the Post but we didn't feel anything.

[katlady]

Originally Posted by TravelMike

It is not widely known that the largest quake in recorded history was in the midwest. California has lots of smaller ones with a large jolt like 1989, causing major problems. If my history is correct the midwest quake I read about changed the path of the Mississippi river. Mike

That is odd cause I don't widely know that in fact the top 10 earthquakes in the world Alaska is on that list three times and is the only US state on the list. In fact the Alaskan earthquake of 1964 was larger then the Sumatra Earthquake. There are less people living in Alaska at this time so this earthquake and tsunami took 128 lives (tsunami 113, earthquake 15). Sumatra Earthquake was more damaging to human life. The resulting tsunami killed more people then the quake. If you are ever near the ocean after an earthquake and the ocean recedes, run for high ground cause a tsunami is coming.
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/...gest_world.php

[katlady]

Originally Posted by TravelMike

It is not widely known that the largest quake in recorded history was in the midwest. California has lots of smaller ones with a large jolt like 1989, causing major problems. If my history is correct the midwest quake I read about changed the path of the Mississippi river. Mike

I think I found the quake you are refering to it happened in 1811 and contuined to 1812. Number seven on this list. The measuring equipment wasn't as good as it is now there were a series of earthquakes (aftershocks).
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/regional/...largest_us.php

[katlady]

Hey Beenie how is this for Strange? Today is the anniversity of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...MNG71080TG.DTL

[BECKYSOAP]

I AM IN ST. LOUIS AND I WAS AWAKE WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE HIT. IT SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF ME. I COULD TELL THAT MY HOUSE SHOOK. THEN WE HAD A AFTER SHOOK ABOUT 10;15 BUT I WAS WAITING ON A CUSTOMER AND DIDN'T FEEL ANYTHING. MY COWORKERS SAID THEY FELT IT.

[ready2board]

Beenie:

I was at work this morning here in Eastern Indiana and felt absolutely nothing with the original quake. However, I did get rocked awake by the aftershock at 11:15 am this morning ( I work nights and sleep during the day).

What has always struck me as odd with the quakes even when I was living in Calif' is how even a couple miles can make a difference in how much people feel it. Often times one side of of a city will feel it much more strongly than the other..which is what I experienced this morning.

[papa2cool]

I slept through the first one early this morning, but certainly did feel the aftershock at 10:15 this morning. The first one woke Priscilla up.

[mehawk]

Thankfully there was only minor damage and most importantly, no loss of life.

[katlady]

I was looking at the map and you got another after shock 2.7. Friday, April 18, 2008 at 10:05:52 PM at epicenter. That is a small one so you may not have felt it.

[AR]

Originally Posted by katlady

I think I found the quake you are refering to it happened in 1811 and contuined to 1812. Number seven on this list. The measuring equipment wasn't as good as it is now there were a series of earthquakes (aftershocks).

Yeah, the 1811 New Madrid quake was a bear, but very few people know or talk about it because, again, that part of the world was sparsely populated back then, so not that many people were affected. But, yes, by many reports, it actually caused the Mississippi to flow backwards for a time, all clocks stopped, everything that was standing up fell down. Naturally, Dr. Richter hadn't been born yet, so the strength of the quake had to estimated via anecdotal reports.

And, of course, the New Madrid fault is still there, still capable of doing as much damage as anything on the west coast, but very few people, including many who live practially on top of it, know anything about it. Just like most people don't know that a fault runs through the Back Bay of Boston.

[beenie weenie]

Kat I didn't feel either of them. My house must be sitting on shock absorbers or something. This second aftershock was 4 point something... but I missed it too. I was out talking to my neighbor last night and he said it scared the doody out of him and his wife. He said he felt the aftershock too. I probably should look in to getting quake insurance again since I think it got dropped when we changed to different homeowners insurance company. The New Madrid Fault is not too far from here, and the last earthquake I can recall around here was sometime around 1985, with little activity prior to that for several decades. This might be sign, and then again it might not.

If we get "the big one" I don't want to get stuck. Earthquake insurance is very cheap around here.

[monkeythyme]

Believe it or not, the quake was felt quite distinctly at our house 20 miles north of Nashville, TN. My wife and son were both awakened by it, but I have slept so many nights in moving vehicles that I would have slept through it had they not rousted me. Apparently it lasted about 15 seconds here.
If a tornado ever strikes, I will probably die in my sleep.

[katlady]

Beenie I had a co-worker that didn't feel the Loma Prieta 6.9 earthquake. It's up to you on the quake insurance it's a bit over priced out here. I lived on or near the Hayward fault for many years and I never had quake insurance. Another friend of mine moved here from in Southern California and he was in his parents house partial collapsed. He said it was the big bear quake. This is what a 6.9 quake looks like.

[Donna]

Just was reading in our Sunday paper, that this earthquake was a wake up call. We here in the midwest don't really know the first thing about what to do in an earthquake...I sure don't.

[katlady]

Originally Posted by Donna

Just was reading in our Sunday paper, that this earthquake was a wake up call. We here in the midwest don't really know the first thing about what to do in an earthquake...I sure don't.

Here is a earthquake preparedness test.
http://dev.trevco.net/quakeinfo/preptest.html
and a link to earthquake information.
http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/2005/15/

[AR]

I think one of the most important thing in understanding the power of earthquakes is to have a basic understanding of how the Richter scale works. Most people tend to think of it as a straight linear scale, where a 6 might be about a third worse than a 4.

Not even close. The Richter scale is a logrithmic scale at log 10. Those of us who have vague memories of our high school or college math might remember that this has a tremendous compounding effect on the numbers. I just looked it up, and because it's a log scale, and because of the way Richter's formula works, an increase of one whole number yields an increase in energy released of 31x. An increase of two whole nuimbers yields an increase in energy of about 1000x. So a 5 on the Richter scale is 31 times worse than a 4, and a 6 is 1000 times worse than a 4.

That's a big deal, and it's why those decimal numbers take on far, far more importance than on a linear scale. Don't be fooled by what seems to be small numbers.

[DougR.]

Originally Posted by beenie weenie

I called my sister about 45 minues away in Champaign and she said it woke her up from a dead sleep and "wiggled" her house a bit. She sounded really relieved and happy that we had an earthquake. A few days ago a friend of hers had passed away after a long battle with cancer and Sis had spent yesterday at the funeral. My sister claims to be a frequent victim of visitations of displaced souls who have passed on, she thought that her friend had visited to say her final goodbyes before passing over to the other side by shaking her bed and rattling the glasses in her china cabinet and was very relieved to hear it was an earthquake and not a haunting.

Does your sister happen to be Mrs Odd Thomas? (from a Dean Koontz Fan)

[beenie weenie]

Doug to be honest everyone in our family is a little "odd" lol. But anyway, I guess we had another 4.5 aftershock in the middle of the night again last night. I called the insurance dude to ask him about adding earthquake coverage. He said it's only about $80 per year, but we have to wait 30 days from Friday's event to add it. I told him once 30 days is up to go ahead and add it on. Hopefully we won't get hit by "the big one" before then, knock on wood!

[katlady]

Originally Posted by beenie weenie

Doug to be honest everyone in our family is a little "odd" lol. But anyway, I guess we had another 4.5 aftershock in the middle of the night again last night. I called the insurance dude to ask him about adding earthquake coverage. He said it's only about $80 per year, but we have to wait 30 days from Friday's event to add it. I told him once 30 days is up to go ahead and add it on. Hopefully we won't get hit by "the big one" before then, knock on wood!

That's a good price. What is your deductible?

[beenie weenie]

I think its either $250 or $500, can't remember to be honest. But I know it isn't more than $500. It's through Farm Bureau.

[DougR.]

Originally Posted by beenie weenie

Doug to be honest everyone in our family is a little "odd" lol. But anyway, I guess we had another 4.5 aftershock in the middle of the night again last night. I called the insurance dude to ask him about adding earthquake coverage. He said it's only about $80 per year, but we have to wait 30 days from Friday's event to add it. I told him once 30 days is up to go ahead and add it on. Hopefully we won't get hit by "the big one" before then, knock on wood!

My family too!

For those who don't know, Odd Thomas is a character in a series of novels by Dean Koontz who can see the dead who are yet to pass to the "other side". Elvis was his constant companion in the three books, until Odd convinced him that he should not be ashamed to face his late mother. At the end of the third, Frank Sinatra had joined him. (Disclaimer: The above has not revealed even a tiny part of the plot of the three novels.)

The insurance business sucks. It was in today's Atlantic City Press that a major insurance company whose name has a reference to agriculture is not renewing homeowner's policies on NJ's barrier islands despite the fact that we have not had a major storm since 1962 and we are shielded from most direct hits by North Carolina's bulging out into the Atlantic (storms tend to bounce off and curve up towards New England). I live inland so I am probably safe from cancellation.

[katlady]

Originally Posted by beenie weenie

I think its either $250 or $500, can't remember to be honest. But I know it isn't more than $500. It's through Farm Bureau.

That is a much better deal then we get out here. Plus I moved to Sacramento area and there are not major faults over here. If the bay area has a quake we will feel it but not enough to do damage. Unless it's a 9.5 quake. See Sacramento empty no earthquakes. 8)

[jackieb]

It woke me up, i'm about 50 miles outside of st. louis and I thought we were having a thunderstorm with out the sound & lightning just the rumble.