Earthquake in the Midwest
Very early this morning, I woke to a loud rumbling and my bed shaking. Since I am a writer, I often have an overactive imagination. My first thought upon waking was that I was in the Exorcist and a demon was shaking my bed. Since it was pitch black in the room, I had no idea what was really going on. Over the next few seconds, as my brain began to clear and the shaking intensified, I realized that it must be an earthquake. Survival instincts kicked in and I knew that I needed to get myself and the kids in the doorways of the house. By the time I untangled from the covers and made it out of bed, the shaking stopped.
My sleepy brain tried to process all of this and I wondered if I was just dreaming. A few seconds later, the phone rang. It was my husband. He was checking that we were okay as he was already at work. He asked if it woke me up and when I said yes, he said he lost that bet. He is always telling me that I sleep so sound that an earthquake wouldn’t wake me up. Guess I proved him wrong.
We have had some milder aftershocks throughout the day today. Let’s hope this is all past and we won’t have anything else for a while. We do have a few cracks in our drywall, but for the most part things look okay. Praise the Lord for protecting everyone in the Midwest and watching over us.
April 20, 2008 @ 1:18 am
Hi Lori,
It’s your student Shannon! I’m sorry to hear the earthquake startled you awake. I slept right through it, amazingly. I didn’t learn of the quake until I had already been at work for a few hours, since I rarely watch the news or listen to the radio. I guess the events of the day caused me to ignore the tremors throughout the day as well. Well, never a boring moment in life, right?
April 20, 2008 @ 1:35 am
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for stopping by! We felt one tremor after and then didn’t really notice the others, although other people told us that they felt them or noticed them. I’m sort of worried because this wasn’t actually the main fault line and I heard it really didn’t relieve much pressure. That may mean another, bigger one is on the way. Hope not though.
April 20, 2008 @ 7:26 pm
Oh, I know. From what I was told, since this fault line has been dormant for thousands of years, I believe, the Madrid earthquakes are supposed to be worse than the San Andreas fault line earthquakes. Especially since the quake and aftershocks were felt throughout the mid-west into the eastern and northern areas of the country. Of course, what all this means, is I certainly hope Chicago is able to withstand earthquakes…And we may have to start building our homes to earthquake codes, if they aren’t already…