April 19, 2008
By Tamara Waters
Associated Content
Something awakened my husband and I early in the morning of April 18, 2008. The bed was shaking and I could hear the rattling and tinkling of pictures on the wall and dishes in the kitchen as my husband and I both realized what was happening.
Photo: Chicago felt rumblings from the quake. (Wikimedia commons)It was an earthquake. I looked at the digital clock to note the time - 4:37. I could hear a noise that sounded like thunder. The shaking continued for what seemed to be almost 30 seconds then stopped.
My oldest and youngest child slept through the commotion, but my middle child woke up thinking it was a storm.
I've always had an interest in earthquakes and guessed the quake to be somewhere around a magnitude 4 to 5.
We settled down and went back to sleep to be awakened two hours later by a call on my husband's cell phone. His mother was calling from Pennsylvania, she'd heard about the quake on the national news.
After assuring her we were fine, we turned on the television to discover the quake had been measured at 5.2 (how's that for an amateur!) and we no longer had running water.
Apparently a main water line had ruptured around midnight then had been damaged further by the quake. The local water department personnel would later tell me they were having a hectic day dealing with problems all over the water district stemming from the quake.
I noticed that a frame holding some of my photos had shaken a picture loose and left it on the living room floor, but otherwise I couldn't see any damage. I got online to check the United States Geological Survey website (www.earthquake.usgs.gov) to see what information was available. It listed the 5.2 quake, followed by at least four smaller quakes (magnitudes 2.2 to 2.6) in the vicinity. The smaller quakes were too small for us to feel.
The earthquake was the talk of the town as I stopped at the little store in my community. The owner asked if I'd felt the quake and we discussed the water outage that affected my home down the road to the east, but not the store or homes farther south.
I was on my way to my parent's home to fill water jugs for us to use until the water lines were repaired. They still had water, although their pressure was lower than normal.
My son and daughter were sorry they'd slept through the big event, but at 10:14, they were able to experience another, smaller quake. This one was a 4.6. A friend who lived about two miles north of me had called earlier to tell me her power had suddenly went out, as well as the power at her parent's home across the street from her. I called her back to see if she had felt this latest quake.
This was already starting out to be a strange day.
Having grown up in Southern Illinois, I was very familiar with the New Madrid Fault Zone which encompasses the southwestern edge of Illinois - right where Missouri, Illinois and Kentucky meet. I grew up hearing tales about the great earthquakes of 1811-13 and have heard for the past 20 years that "The Big One" would be coming and would wreak havoc in our area. When I was in college in the early 90's, area residents were stirred up by scientist Iben Browning's prediction of "The Big One" happening on January 15, 1991. People went earthquake preparedness crazy, only to forget about it when January 15th came and went without even a quiver.
Our eastern state border also sits along a fault line, the Wabash Fault Zone, although residents tend to ignore it in favor of the more well-known New Madrid Fault. I live in Marion, Illinois which is almost smack dab in a V in relation to the two faults.
This has already been a year of wild weather - from crippling ice storms to horrendous flooding. We are used to constant tornado threats, which we tend to have a laissez-faire attitude toward because they are a regular occurrence in this area. Although we're not California, the threat of a large earthquake in our area is very real - and today's quakes have been a much-needed wakeup call.
Just this past February, I attended a workshop on emergency preparedness in which we discussed tornadoes, earthquakes, floods, and ice storms - all of the potential natural disasters our area was at risk for.
Our region had just recently been hit by a terrible ice storm that shut businesses down, knocked out power and generally freaked people out.
At the preparedness workshop, I was amazed to count only 10 people in attendance!
People aren't getting the picture. They are not understanding the fact that they need to be ready and prepared in case of a disaster. Preparedness can be as simple as having a few jugs or bottles of water, some non-perishable food, flashlights and batteries, a first aid kit and a plan for dealing with the situation.
Today's earthquake made me realize that I'm not as prepared as I intend to be. I should have had jugs of water already put aside. If the earthquake had been larger and caused actual damage (other than water lines) I would have been in trouble. I might not have been able to get to my parent's home three miles down the road. What if their water had been out also?
What would we do if the Wabash Fault Zone and the New Madrid Fault Zone decided to rumble at the same time? It could be a real disaster and being prepared is the key.
My friend and I discussed how the day before had felt strange and we both had slept fitfully all night last night. She told me that her cats and dog had acted strange all evening and I told her my kids had been crabby all day yesterday.
My grandmother had made coffee last night before retiring to bed, completely out of her habit and routine. She normally makes it in the mornings, but for some reason that she couldn't explain, she had made her coffee last night.
Could it be that we all had some strange premonition?
Either way, I plan to be prepared for the next time. Even if we never experience another earthquake, flood, ice storm, tornado or anything else, I want to make sure we are ready.
Just in case.
More resources
www.earthquake.usgs.gov
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/722633/52_midwestern_earthquake_serves_as.html