Lotta Shakin' Goin' On

Yes, I realize that is hardly an original title. But what else can I say about the shaking of the bed in the second floor bedroom in a full brick house that woke us up at 4:38 a.m.? Although earthquakes are felt periodically in this area, this was the first one we have noticed since moving to this house in 2001. We quickly realized that yes, it WAS an earthquake. One that had the house swaying. After 30 seconds or so it stopped and I jumped out of bed and turned on trusty KMOX-AM. Yes, callers were calling in. In about 10 minutes they had the preliminary magnitude: 5.4 centered in southeastern Illinois.

As the morning progressed, we learned it was a 5.2 and centered just a few miles from where friends Amos and LInda live. I emailed them and they are in Virginia this week, grandchild sitting, but relatives were checking on their house. As I was reading Amos' e-mail reply about 10:15 a.m., the house swayed again: windows rattled and all of the plants in the dining room were dancing. This aftershock was a 4.6, we heard later. It was a reminder that yes, we do live in an earthquake zone; the New Madrid fault is "overdue" for a magnitude 6.0 or greater, the geologists say. And as we lay in bed this morning in the dark, after it stopped rocking, we vowed to upgrade our preparedness plan and gave thanks that our homeowners policy does include earthquake insurance, which is becoming hard to get in these parts.

Frankly I prefer our Midwest storms, even tornadoes, I think. At least you have some forecast or warning. Californians may get used to this unannounced shaking, but it's uncommon enough in the Midwest. By the way, as I was writing that last sentence, I think I felt another little tremor, one that just rippled through the floor and the seat of my chair.