Earthquake centered in Illinois rocks Indiana
By The Associated Press
Friday, April 18, 2008 8:58 PM EDT
INDIANAPOLIS - Kyle and Julie Smith thought their dog was having a seizure when they awoke early Friday to find their bedroom shaking. But the dog wasn't on the bed - she was pacing nervously about as a magnitude 5.2 earthquake swayed the Midwest.
The temblor, which struck at 4:37 a.m. Central time and caused minor damage in southeastern Illinois, was felt as far away as Milwaukee, Des Moines, Iowa, and Atlanta.
Only small amounts of damage were reported in Indiana's southwestern corner.
The Smiths said they quickly realized that it was an earthquake because they recalled a magnitude 5.0 quake centered near Lawrenceville, Ill., that shook Indiana in 1987.
‘‘It can't say that I was frightened at all because I remembered that one in the late ‘80s. It was really just a little bump,'' Kyle Smith said.
About six hours later, they were at work at downtown Indianapolis' 38-story OneAmerica Tower when they felt a magnitude 4.6 aftershock - one of dozens that followed the pre-dawn quake.
In Vincennes, about 25 miles from the first quake's epicenter six miles from West Salem, Ill., police reported that bricks fell from an abandoned home's chimney in the 5.2-magnitude quake.
Joe Wainscott Jr., executive director of the Indiana Department of Homeland Security, said there were also reports from southwestern Indiana of glass breaking and a mobile home that may have come off its foundation.
Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle from the Evansville post said he was shaken out of his bed by the earth's motion. Other Indiana residents, such as Kelly Bolte, a waitress in Seymour, about 60 miles south of Indianapolis, were simply awakened by the shaking.
‘‘The things on my curio were rattling and the water in the fish bowl was splashing,'' she said. ‘‘It felt like the dog was running through the house.''
After the quake, Indiana Department of Transportation crews immediately began inspecting about 800 bridges and overpasses along such highways as Interstate 64 and U.S. 41 in southwestern Indiana. Only one problem was seen - a bridge with an existing problem that was possibly worsened by the quake, said INDOT spokesman Andy Dietrick.
‘‘But this was not anything that would compromise the integrity of the bridge,'' he said.
After the 4.6-magnitude aftershock, he said INDOT crews re-inspected six bridges that are on a special inspection list because they have a similar design to the Interstate 35W bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis last August.
At Vincennes University, about 30 miles east of the epicenter, all five dormitories were evacuated as a precaution, sending nearly 1,500 students to an intramural field for an hour, said university spokesman Duane Chattin.
In one residence hall, the earthquake triggered the fire alarm, Chattin said.
The quake was apparently part of the Wabash Valley fault, a northern extension of the New Madrid fault about six miles north of Mount Carmel, Ill.
Larry Braile, head of Purdue University's Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, said Friday's quake was the most powerful in the Midwest since a magnitude 5.5 rocked southeastern Illinois in November 1968.
Phil Roberts, an earthquake consultant for Indiana, said the state experiences hundreds of earthquakes each year with magnitudes ranging from 1.2 to about 2.0 - too weak to be felt.
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