Friday, April 18, 2008

Earthquake

I woke early this morning to a strange sound — as if a behemoth truck were driving across the roof of my house. The rumbling (heard, not felt) lasted a few seconds, and I went back to sleep.

It turns out to have been an earthquake. There are no signs of damage. I've heard no sirens. No significant attention on the television news. A local morning show just mentioned (mentioned!) the earthquake during its weather forecast.

Update, 10:16 a.m.: We just had an aftershock, a few seconds with bookcases shaking.

5.4 earthquake rocks Illinois (Associated Press)

comments: 2

Anonymous said...

By now you've probably seen more coverage on the national news (and folks here in Wisconsin claim to have felt mild tremors). We're very glad to learn that everyone by you (as my great aunt would say) is okay.

On a somewhat sunnier note, it's a good opportunity to plug one of Uncle Tupelo's finer songs: "New Madrid," about the southern Illinois fault line, not Spanish urban renewal.

Michael Leddy said...

I'm curious to see what's on the news later today. The aftershock was pretty unsettling — very different from waking up in the early morning and not even thinking about the possibility of an earthquake.

I remember hearing about New Madrid and living on a fault line when we first moved here. How easy it is to forget about such things with the uneventful passage of time.