Shake, Rattle and Roll!

Holy Earthquakes, Batman!

Well, I guess we can say we’re not earthquake virgins anymore here in Indiana! I hope to never get woken up by one again, it was so bizarre. The earth did quaketh!! Say that 10 times fast!

Tom and I are laughing now at our reactions this morning. I was laying all comfy when all of the sudden I could feel the bed shaking back and forth. It was one of those "am I really feeling this?" kind of sensations. I thought maybe Carter was climbing into the bed, but that is not like him. I immediately realized once I heard the windows making weird sounds, that our bed was still shaking and this is not normal! I shot straight up just about the same time as Tom. He initially inquired to me, "what are you doing?" because he thought I was shaking the bed. I said back a few choice words, along the lines of, "Nothing! What the heck is going on? What is this?" A few of my perfume creams fell over on my dresser too, and Tom said wind couldn't do that... (haha!)

I leaped out of bed and threw open the blinds expecting to see some sort of funnel cloud about to suck us up, and then the house stopped shaking. There was not a leaf on a tree moving. I thought for sure a tornado was on top of us by the way the house was shaking and the windows were rattling and the house was making weird creaking noises. Then I thought we might need to get a priest in here to clear out the crazy spirits that were shaking our bed! So many things crossed our minds: Tornado? Evil spirit? Did a car hit the house? Was there a head-on collision on the road? Did someone break into our house? Was that… an earthquake?? (surely not, right?!)

It's always interesting to me to reflect back on the thoughts you have while in the middle of something unexpected. How does the brain process all of those movie-like images so quickly to your thoughts? I listened for Olivia over the monitor and she didn't wake. Carter stayed fast asleep. Tom got up and checked around the house just to make sure there wasn't a car crashed into the house, or someone breaking in. Then we said, duh turn on the news! The newscasters were a little perplexed as well and couldn't yet confirm what all the shaking was caused by. But within about 5-10 minutes they had their confirmation. But first, they received calls from viewers all over the place saying they felt the shaking too.

I called my parents and interestingly enough, Mom didn't feel it during her routine of getting off to work. Dad said he felt the bed shaking but thought it was the cats chasing each other on the bed. We talked to Tom's parents too and they were just as surprised to feel this little nugget as we were.

Our local CBS station said:

The initial earthquake hit with a magnitude of 5.2 around 5:36 a.m. Friday. After shocks have been occurring since then, originating in Illinois, but being experienced in Indiana. After shocks, their times and magnitudes as of 1 p.m. were:

6:03 a.m. EDT 3 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
6:15a.m. EDT 4 miles S of Noble, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
6:36 a.m. EDT 6 miles NNE of Bellmont, IL 2.4 tremor located 11.1 mile depth
6:46a.m. EDT 7 miles NNE Bellmont, IL 2.2 tremor located 11.1 mile depth
7:55 a.m.EDT 6 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.6 tremor located 6.2 mile depth
11:14 a.m. EDT, 8 miles E from West Salem, IL. 4.5 tremor located 6.2 miles deep.

I guess you could say we're pretty lucky to have felt an earthquake under our feet, without having to go through any devastation.

Here’s a video of Evansville’s TV station during the quake. I am cracking up at the weatherman’s matter-of-fact demeanor while the shaking was happening and he wasn’t sure what to make of it. I think it’s pretty accurate of what most of us were thinking too! So weird, but pretty funny!

CLICK HERE!

Well, that's enough excitement for one day! :)