Earthquake in Decatur, Illinois.

April 18, 2008 | Me

[dinoparty]

Decatur, Illinois

My wife and I just felt a very noticeable earthquake.

[SilvieWaldorfMD]

Wow... did your power go out at all?

[stayathomemom]

My mother in law in Alton, IL thought it lasted at least a minute, if not longer. She was awake when the shaking started.

[tsmith130]

Well, I guess a really good tuna casserole IS hard to come by.

[lupie]

Wow... did your power go out at all?

No. It wasn't that bad here. At first I thought it was really close lightning where the thunder rattles the house or a big truck or train or maybe a strong gust of wind. But there was no noise to go along with those - it was quiet and it kept going and going. So then we decided it had to have been an earthquake. It woke up our daughter and a few minutes later, our daughter said it was on the radio that it was an earthquake and it even woke her up. I think maybe she was trying to outdo her twin sister who is in graduate school in Montreal and her whole apartment building was totally gutted by fire 2 weeks ago. A little less excitement would be fine with me.

[Clint N. Suhks]

Apparently it’s not New Madrid’s fault...

I’m just sayin’

[Bahbah]

Hi, Clint.

Quite the wake up this morning. Must be Bush’s fault.

[ozark hilljilly]

Nuthin’ felt here on the Arky-Mo. stateline, at least by me. I did wake up around 4:45 for what I thought was no apparent reason. (looked at the clock, and went back to sleep.) Being a Ca. expat, I’ve slept through shakers bigger than this, but I’m kind of sorry I missed it.
Local news says it wasn’t the New Madrid. A 5.4 is pretty hefty for these parts.

[vetvetdoug]

We felt it here in NE Mississippi, near the Al/TN/MS border. My daughter and I got up and ran through the house for about ten seconds...sounded and felt like someone was on our porch jumping up and down. I called my answering service and asked them if anything like a seismic event had happened...they said a transformer just blew up downtown but thats all and had no report of a earthquake. The last one we felt was the Ft. Payne, AL, event and it was a 4.8...about 4 years ago.

[Quix]

How far away is the New Madrid fault from you?

God be with you and yours.

[Obadiah]

Freepers in that area should Google the New Madrid earthquakes which occurred from 1811 to 1812. I think you may be surprised to learn of the fault line in that area.

[kygolfman]

Felt it in Bowling Green, KY...same thing...house shook...woke wife

[dawns31]

I felt it too! I just got online to see if anyone had posted yet. Im right near our bedroom window and the wall was actually shaking. Kind of scary.

[Blackguitar0816]

I felt in in Springfield IL.

[freedom4ever]

We felt it badly in Gibson County. We had broken glasses, and pictures fell off the wall. It shook me and the wife out of bed.

[Typical_Whitey]

Bush and Cheney going after Obama?

[penelopesire]

Just lurking on the thread because have read about the New Madrid. That’s the fault line that caused the Mississippi River to run backward for several days in the 1800’s and created reelfoot lake.

Hope this is not a prelude to something bigger.

[Wite_Rose]

I felt it in Hamilton, Ohio about 30 mintues outside of Cincinnati!

[Pilots Wish]

We were woken up in Westmoreland, TN 4:30’ish - Fairfield area closer to Portland, Tn. I had reported the event on http://earthquake.usgs.gov/ & kept updating my google search for indication there was actually a seismic event & finally about 10 minutes later saw this thread started! Phew, didn’t want USGS thinking I was some sort of nut. HAHA

Everyone see the reports on the quakes off the coast of Washington State last week? Very strange stuff, seismologists reported that they had never heard such strange sound waves emitted from the events, they had never heard such sounds in their life... (600+quakes in short amt of time) and were quite weirded out by it.

*hey shameless plug. if anyone here enjoys rock music it’s very melodic/no screaming... if you’re bored at all I’d be honored if you’d feel free to visit our bands site to listen to a tunes from our debut ep. www.myspace.com/pilotswish - I play bass, my brother sings, sister plays piano + 3 close friends on guitars/drums.*

promise I’m leaving now! hhaha

everyone stay safe!
with the most love,
katie & all of PW

[Mercat]

Me too and I live in Kansas. I think it costs $15/yr. but with a three story chimney, I’m not taking any chances.

[united1000]

I'm closer to Glendale. Yeah, at first I thought it was the low rumble and sound of thunder until it sunk in that I was gripping the bed as it was shaking like crazy and felt like it came from below. Knew then that it was earthquake.