Blogged
Rattled
Later: Aftershock at 10:15 am, as reported by KMOV (may require registration), measuring 4.5 on the Richter scale. Seemed to last about fifteen seconds or so. The pantry doors rattled; tuxedo cat Baxter took off out of the kitchen like a shot. The aftershock was reported much more quickly (at KMOV, at least) than was the initial quake.
Tim Kusky, director of the Center for Environmental Science at St. Louis University, weighs in with a brief post on the initial 5.2 quake at STLtoday.com’s “Mother Nature” blog.
Also, PubDef takes note of the quake, with exclamation points. Nice map from CNN included which shows the range of the event.
Speaking from personal experience: Today is a perfect occasion for bitter recriminations over those emergency preparedness activities you always meant to get around to.
Earlier: M and I awakened to an unfamiliar rattling at about twenty ’til five this morning that I was ready to blame on the cats, but which seemed to come from all around us. The cats were just as confused as we were. The tremor seemed to last a little over a minute and also seemed split into two parts. This was a moderate earthquake, preliminarily reported at 5.4 (more recently downgraded to 5.2) on the Richter scale. The quake’s epicenter is reportedly located about 127 miles east of St. Louis in southeast Illinois and southeast Indiana.
Checked pets, checked the gas and water connections, checked the breakables: all fine. Looked out the windows: all our neighbors seemed dead to the world. Slackers. Later, M said she thought that our cat Baxter bolted off the bed before we detected any trembling; perhaps he was reacting to the first, faint period of the quake.
No news immediately on the radio, TV, or the web, but maybe that was expecting a little too much. The news stations are all over it now, of course. They fielded numerous calls from people all with the same story - the china rattled and woke us up. You have to wonder if all these people think they’ll be the first to report a quake, or else they all think they’ll be privy to some secret intelligence not yet being publicly reported.
One of the two chief anchors for a local TV station showed up to help with the coverage; poor guy really looks like he just rolled out of bed, and he’s wearing a cap on television. Commercial break came and went and the jacket is off, but the cap is still on. Likely didn’t spare enough time to get that hairpiece in place before leaving the house. Good on him; that’s professionalism.
Readers in California will have to excuse us; we’re not used to seismic events here, and frankly don’t give them any thought unless someone comes along to make dire, heavily publicized predictions. The first thought with any local tremor is the storied and worrisome New Madrid fault, but this quake seems to be unconnected to that. Not directly, at any rate.
Interestingly enough, this very day marks the anniversary of the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Went outside to check the exterior of the house and found myself thinking: “Jesus, has our chimney stack always been that crooked?”
The Post-Dispatch reports that the Kingshighway overpass between Vandeventer and Shaw has been closed over reported debris fallen from the structure’s undercarriage…
…and just like that, KMOV reports that the overpass is open for business once more, though perhaps with restricted lanes.
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Hi - we live southwest of Chicago in Montgomery and we woke up around 4:30 am to trembling - a rolling regular tremor. Didn’t last long (maybe 20 seconds). Nothing fell over or off walls so I knew it wasn’t a bad one. But my dog jumped off the bed and laid down under the doorway! haha Good Dog!
That makes 3 tremblors I’ve felt since I’ve lived here - one about a year and a half ago (things fell over with that one) and a big one in either 1976 or 1977.
I knew when Eli Stone had that earthquake scene in California, there was going to be an earthquake. But I thought it was going to be in California. You see, people play games with things about which they are ignorant. Earthquakes, tornados, rain storms, snow storms, floods, hail etc. all come under the heading, “God’s Work”. All you have to do is read Job and it will tell everything you want to know about that. So when mere man fakes an earthquake, it angers God. He says to Himself, “You want an earthquake, I’ll give you an earthquake!” People, leave God’s things alone. Or He can make it really bad for us. And don’t e-mail me and say, “You don’t know what God is saying.” Yes I do. All I have to do is read the Bible!
Laura: I’ve been here since 1980 and this is the first tremblor I’ve actually noticed! We’ve had others, of course, but somehow I didn’t pick up on them and so felt really left out while everyone else talked about them.
It scared us. We nurses flew to the nursery. Patients wanted to know if we were evacuating. All seemed a little stunned but we came through with flying colors. And as usual calls to home to make sure all was safe at our homes. Reports came in that most had indeed slept through it here in St. Louis. It was exciting but made the hospital staff a tad bit jumpy. Everyone was saying Duck and Cover.
fnbug: Jumpy, indeed! A tremor of even this moderate size is a first for a lot of us here. Just felt the aftershock a couple of minutes ago.
Hi-I hope everyone is OK back there. I am in Seattle which is earthquake country, but nothing like California. We had a 6.8 a few years ago, I hope not to have to go through one of those again anytime soon!
Cathy: We seem to be okay here in Gatewayville - just kind of excited. Fortunately, there have been no reports of deaths, injuries, or major damage over the rather wide area affected by the quake. Give my regards to Seattle!
We felt it here in Corinth, Ky but did not know at the time what it was. Thought it was just me feeling weird. Went back to sleep and heard of it on noon news. I remember one when I lived in Covington, Ky as a little girl. The Tank Bus looked like it was driving sideways and a statue fell of the church where we waiting for a bus. Not sure what year that was. But Wow, does this mean more are coming?
Beckie: We can almost certainly expect aftershocks; we’ve already felt at least one here in STL. My wife, M, was in a meeting at work during the aftershock a couple of hours ago; she thought felt a tremor but was not really sure she wasn’t imagining things. She said the coffee in her supervisor’s cup was rippling.
It woke me up, but I didn’t bother to get out of bed. Of course, I didn’t get out of bed until after the 6.8 Northridge stopped shaking either. No point when you can’t keep your footing, and we were far enough away (25 miles?) that it didn’t do much except knock the bedside lamps onto the floor. Baby-proofed houses are earthquake-proofed houses, it seems.
I was at Large High School for the 10:15 aftershock this morning, and didn’t even notice it. Of course, I never could feel anything less than a 4.4 while standing, even out in CA.
Camera: The 12-year-old boy of a friend of ours slept through the morning quake and was bitterly disappointed to learn he had done so. Not sure if he noticed the aftershock (he would have been at school).