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Midwest earthquake??

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by old_tony, Apr 18, 2008.

  1. Big Buckin' agate_monkey

    Big Buckin' agate_monkey Active Member

    I felt in the middle of Illinois.
    It woke me up, but it's wasn't too bad. I thought the one in '04 felt worse.
    I just wondered why the hell my bed was shaking. Then I went back to sleep. Damn earthquake.
     
  2. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    Holy shit. The center of that thing was only 80 miles from my mom's house. I'm about to call her. Sometimes, she doesn't wake up until 10 a.m. But I imagine she's awake now. I'm sure she's fine, but I didn't expect to watch a 22-inning baseball game, go to sleep at 4:30 a.m. and then wake up four hours later to learn about an earthquake near my hometown.
     
  3. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    Buds from the trees in my mom's yard are jammed into the screen on her bedroom window. They must've been tossed off the tree, which is a good 20 feet from the window. She's pretty sick, and she's a little irrational. She says she hasn't been up to look outside yet and that her stomach has been bothering her since the shake.

    She heard something slamming into the front of the house, and she heard a crash. But she hasn't checked out the damage yet. She's going to provide me with a report soon. I checked my hometown paper's site, and they only have an AP brief. Decatur had nothing. Champaign has a story that says there weren't many reports of damage near the epicenter. But surely there are some reports yet to come in.
     
  4. three_bags_full

    three_bags_full Well-Known Member

    5.4 won't begin to describe what's going to happen when the New Madrid "really" goes.
     
  5. OnTheRiver

    OnTheRiver Active Member

    We've got a reporter over at the epicenter right now ... it's about 45 minutes away. No serious damage reports from him yet. Some bricks off a building in New Harmony, which is across the Wabash River from the epicenter.
     
  6. Italian_Stallion

    Italian_Stallion Active Member

    Mom called. Undoubtedly, she didn't want to disappoint the SportsJournalists.com audience. She says further inspection shows that there's not any visible damage. A few cabinets were jostled around, and a downspout looks twisted. That's it.

    My guess is that most of the damage will be from old brick buildings in the downtown areas. A lot of cities around there date to the 1870s. Many downtowns have buildings almost that old. My buddy works in one such downtown area. I'm going to call him soon.
     
  7. JBHawkEye

    JBHawkEye Well-Known Member

    Felt it here in SE Iowa. Building shook for about 15 seconds. Scary, because you don't know when it's going to end.

    We've had a couple of tremors here before, but nothing like this.

    Nice way to wake up at 4:45.
     
  8. steveu

    steveu Well-Known Member

    If your wife said "you made the earth move for me" Friday morning you gotta wonder if she was lying.

    OK, OK: The scary thing is this was a fault near New Madrid. I don't think the Big One's coming any time soon down there, but this makes you wonder.
     
  9. mustangj17

    mustangj17 Active Member

    I live a little further east than you guys and have never felt an earthquake.

    If the ground was shaking for 15 seconds I probably wouldn't have a clue what was going on.

    Then I would have to change my shorts.
     
  10. 2muchcoffeeman

    2muchcoffeeman Well-Known Member

    CNN is now calling this one a 5.2. When I first heard about it this morning, it was a 5.9. CNN also says that people as far away as Niceville, Fla., felt it --- that's 891 miles away.

    http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/18/illinois.earthquake/index.html
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_18%2C_2008_Midwest_Earthquake

    Quake occurred in the Wabash Valley seismic system, which is adjacent to the New Madrid Seismic Zone (the Reelfoot Rift).
     
  11. Football_Bat

    Football_Bat Well-Known Member

    I've felt an earthquake only once, and it was about 250 miles from a 5.5. It hit about 4:30 a.m. while I was asleep. I felt the bed shake from side to side and I thought someone was trying to wake me up. The crazy thing was, it was totally silent. No rumbling at all.

    When the New Madrid lets go, it'll make the World Series quake look like child's play.
     
  12. dixiehack

    dixiehack Well-Known Member

    For those new to quakes (which included me until this one), be sure to check your basement for cracks.
     
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