4:38 AM

Did you feel the earthquake last night?

At 4:38AM, I awoke, shaking - the entire building was shaking! Never having been through an earthquake, I really didn't know what to think, however we live on a fault (or very close to one, at any rate), and "earthquake" was the first thing that came to mind. I entertained the notion that maybe someone had run into the building, but I hadn't heard a crash and no one else came outside or anything, so I knew that's what it had to be.

I immediately turned to the early-morning news programs, but they were all about what the schools are serving for lunch today and how coupons can help save you hundreds every year at the grocery store, blahblahblah. So I got up and smoked a cigarette to calm my nerves and make sure I hadn't dreamed it.

The satellite radio antenna the neighbor beneath me has on his window proved it was no dream; it kept thwap-thwap-thwapping from the shake for a good minute, minute-and-a-half after everything settled down. The most frightening thing was how the building itself took a moment to stop swaying - a lot longer than I would have expected!

It didn't knock things off the shelves or anything, but it gave me a pretty good scare.

The New York Times reports that the earthquake was centered in Illinois and was felt as far South as Atlanta. It knocked bricks from structures in Louisville, KY. The Wabash fault is believed to be the one that caused it, which is an extension of the New Madrid fault - on which I live! They say it was a 5.2 quake that happened at 4:37 AM.

© C Harris Lynn, 2008