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April 22, 2008


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NEWS

5.2 Magnitude Earthquake Felt in Tri-Counties

By Linda Bolton and Shannon McFarlin
linda@mckenziebanner.com

The 911 dispatch office in Huntingdon logged several calls early Friday morning. Calls were coming from Carroll Countians who felt their beds shaking and items on the walls rattling as the effects of the 5.2 magnitude earthquake were felt locally.

According to the Center for Underground Earthquake Consortium (CUSEC), the official time of the quake was 4.37 a.m. CDT at the epicenter of the quake, which was five miles NNE from Bellmont, Illinois.

Dispatcher Jamie Verner was on duty at the E-911 office and stated that “it shook pretty bad here at the sheriff’s office.”

Carroll County Emergency Management Manager Janice Newman said she did not personally receive any calls during the earlier morning hours, but stated she had heard many people talking about the quake later that morning.

A McKenzie Police Department dispatcher logged the “shaking incident” at 4:48 a.m., according to a fellow dispatcher. However, no calls were logged here, she said.

Huntingdon Police Dispatcher Lorraine Dunn and her husband, Huntingdon Police Sergeant Randall Dunn was drinking coffee in the living room of their home when they first felt the shaking.

“I have a leather sectional couch and it was like it was on a train,” she said. “It seemed like it went on for about a minute.

“My Amazon parrot, “Willie” fell off his perch and then he said “Hello,” she laughed.

She stated a fellow police dispatcher, who was on duty at the time of the quake, told her she received a few calls from persons regarding the “shaking.”

McKenzie resident Lisa Horner said she was awakened by her family’s cats, who were “meowing strangely,” just outside the doorway. Then their Amazon parrot,” who is usually quiet at night when his cage is covered, starting causing a disturbance about 4:30 a.m.

“I heard his cage rattle then I heard him fall off his perch. All his toys and bells were jingling,” she said. “I heard him climbing back up and then he fell off again. I got up to check on him and he seemed kind of disoriented.”

She said she did not personally feel the house shaking, but learned just after taking the kids to school there had been an earthquake.

Paris police dispatcher Mark Rudy was working Friday morning and logged in seven calls that came to the 911 phone number, with many more arriving at the Paris Police Department’s 642-2424 number.

After she came on duty at 6 a.m., Dispatcher Angie Case said she had already received several more calls from people “who want to know if it’s true.”

Henry County Emergency Management Director Ron Watkins said the quake “woke me up – it got me out of bed. I felt the bed shaking and the house shaking and at first I thought a storm blew up, but then I realized the bed was still shaking.”

In addition to the Henry County 911 office, he said, the sheriff’s department “was inundated by calls from people and the Paris Police were called out on several calls of alarms going off. I guess the motion detectors were set off by the quake.”

Watkins said the quake was along the Wabash Fault Zone, which is near the New Madrid Fault Line which people in our region dread so much. “It’s a different fault line, but very close to it, of course,” Watkins said.

The moderate quake was felt in Evansville, Indiana, St. Louis, Missouri, Paducah and Louisville, Kentucky, and as far north as Michigan and as far south as Alabama. Minor damage reports have come in from Evansville, Louisville and other areas.

Watkins said, “This is the largest magnitude earthquake we’ve had in the central United States since 1968 and it is a significant event for our area.”

It is fortunate, he said, “that it wasn’t the large magnitude event that people are worried along the New Madrid Fault at some point, but it does go to show that earthquakes can happen here. It’s a good way to remind the public that they do need to be prepared for these things.”

McKenzian Wayne Bannister stated he arose after he and his wife, Barbara felt their house shaking. He decided to look on the internet to see if there were any reports of earthquakes. “It was within minutes after the quake and it was already on the site,” he said. “I went to the www.usgs.gov Website and it listed the epicenter, magnitude, time, etc. It also had a section on its Website – called “Did you feel it?” - for the public to report personal experiences with the quake.

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April 22, 2008