Waiting for Aftershock

Most of us know that a 5.9 earthquake occurred today around 1:53 EST with an epicenter in Virginia that was felt all over the East Coast. I'm blogging from my office in center city Philadelphia. Mark is home with the kids. Everyone is fine, but holy cow, what a ride.

My organization has the corner office on the 6th floor and I am working alone. When the shaking got really bad I ran out of there afraid that the windows would break or that the office would fall off of the building. Yes, it was that startling. Very near to this building, office windows did shatter, but no reports of other damages have been made. I joined the others in the organization on my building's same floor and we evacuated down the stairwell and tried (often in vain) to get through to loved ones on the phone.

There is something particularly shocking to the system when things like this occur, at least for me. It hit with no warning (as they do) but no one knew for sure if it was an earthquake or terrorist attack. At first I was startled, then scared, then really wishing I wasn't so far from home.

Our phones have been very spotty but texting and on-line services like fb are working.

Mark checked out our house for damage and reports some cracks in the paint around the windows. I don't know if they were already there or are new. He also reports that Alexander's old timey alarm clock that was broken is now working again, but that's it. I just remembered that my nephew Austin predicted the earthquake in Illinois in 2008 and I just got a text from my little sister that she recently had just had a nightmare about an earthquake and Sophie was in it. Come to think of it, I didn't sleep well last night due to nightmares. Weirdness. I guess we're all a little wacky.

As there may be aftershocks I will attempt to get home soon. It's an early rush hour as many buildings have been evacuated. Should be an interesting ride home on the train today.

On Sunday hurricane Irene is expected to march up our way.

I think I'll stop by my favorite wine store on the way home.

Be safe out there friends!

local story HERE

Midwestern Earthquake

Apparently there was an earthquake in northern Illinois very early this morning. It was initially a 4.3 but down graded to a 3.8 on the Richter scale. Unlike the quake in IL in 2008, I did not feel a thing. To keep it in perspective, this quake today was less in magnitude than an aftershock felt in Haiti today. The initial Haiti quake was 33,000 times more powerful. While the IL quake seems to be the "talk of the town," and exciting for many midwesterners who have not experienced this type of thing before (and I can relate), I can't help but think about Haiti. The news is covering it less and less, which I suppose is to be expected. So dear readers, did you feel anything this morning?

I feel the earth move under my feet

I've been in Florida when a hurricane was near. Living in the mid-west I've been around many tornadoes, thunderstorms, flooding, snow storms, and the rare thunder snow. I didn't expect to experience an earthquake like this here. This morning at 4:37 am a 5.2 magnitude quake shook me out of my sleep. Not understanding what was going on, I thought I was going crazy. The whole house was shaking and there was a low rumbling just like you might imagine a quake would sound like. The kids never woke up but my MIL who is visiting did. It was the craziest thing. The walls, the bed, everything was bouncing. Nothing fell off the walls, but it really shook em. The epicenter was 6 miles SW of West Salem, IL or 130 miles south of us and it was the strongest quake in the region in the past 40 years. The earthquake occurred in the Wabash Valley fault system, adjacent to the New Madrid Seismic Zone. Here's a local report.
I don't know how long it lasted, maybe 15-20 seconds at most. They say to expect aftershocks, but nothing too serious. So far we've not felt any more shaking. It was so still and quiet outside immediately afterwards. I'm sure people who live in CA or other areas that are used to this sort of thing but for a mid-western girl, this is Big haps. Here's the CNN link.
UPDATE: I just spoke with my sister in Iowa. Just yesterday her 11 year old son was talking to his dad about earthquakes. He's been known to make freaky predictions. He said "I bet there will be an earthquake in the 5 surrounding states soon." That's exactly how it was reported this morning on their local news. doodee-doodee-doo.
Apparently there was a 4.5 magnitude aftershock at 10:20 am. I didn't feel it, but our friend RK did. Aftershocks are expected to continue throughout the day. There were others measuring 2.6 and 2.5.