<p>Worked for the Mid-America Earthquake Center for two years. Didn’t feel the quake since I’m in Texas, but I have a feeling my former research is going to be resurrected and refunded… It was about preserving the bridge network (bridges now being a hot-button item) in Southern Illinois (hey, that’s now a hot-button item, too).</p>
<p>Here’s the Mid-America Earthquake Center’s website, if you’d like to find out more about the research and preparation that’s being done.
[url=<a href=“http://mae.ce.uiuc.edu/]Mid-America”>http://mae.ce.uiuc.edu/]Mid-America</a> Earthquake Center<a href=“Incidentally,%20the%20guy%20in%20the%20Linbeck%20hardhat%20in%20the%20picture%20on%20the%20front%20page%20has%20nothing%20to%20do%20with%20the%20MAE%20Center,%20but%20is%20currently%20my%20boss.%20Useless%20tidbit%20of%20info%20for%20y’all!”>/url</a></p>
<p>Here in Cape Girardeau, MO many people reported feeling it right around 4:37AM Central Time. I was awake, but did not notice it. But maybe that’s why my computer was acting up this morning? ;)</p>
<p>I did feel the aftershock at about 10:14AM Central Time which I believe was reported as 4.7 or 4.8. One of the football coaches said he had talked to his mom in Iowa and she had felt it there and his dad had felt it up in Minnesota.</p>
<p>I had just expected it to be the New Madrid fault since that runs through the region here.</p>
<p>You can buy kits online… just search for water heater strap, and the California Department of Emergency Whatever (can’t remember the exact name) has a good procedure.</p>
<p>I can’t remember when the code changed… I <em>think</em> it was mid-eighties that seismic provisions started being incorporated in homes in the midwest, so if your home is newer than that, it should have some seismic resistance built in (I’ll look into that a little more… I don’t do residential design, and I no longer do design in seismic areas), but one thing that a lot of homes <em>don’t</em> have is water heater straps. Basically, when full, water heaters have a lot of mass, and with a lot of shaking, they can come loose and flood your house, which can cause a big mess, but more critically, it can work loose the gas line and leak natural gas, causing fires and explosions and all sorts of badness… It’s an easy earthquake-proofing measure that’s low-cost/high-benefit. It’s a $20-30 fix.</p>
<p>^ In 1994 during the Northridge earthquake, my parents water heater was not strapped, moved during the shaking, and the gas line separated…smelled gas and went out to shut it off. Could have been a big disaster if it happened while away from home.</p>
<p>It’s strapped to the wall now!</p>
<p>Also, CA code requires auto emergency natural gas shut off valves on the main supply line to the house…the shaking triggers the gas supply to shut off.</p>
<p>Awoke to what I thought was S shaking the bed to awaken me. When I realized he wasn’t there, I knew it was a quake – had been through a couple similar experiences in KY growing up. My favorite quote is below …</p>
<p>Posted by: ruraliowa on Fri Apr 18, 2008 6:03 am </p>
<p>My wife woke me up. She said the bed is shaking. I said I couldn’t take credit for that and went back to sleep.</p>
<p>I felt it here in Toledo, Ohio. Woke up and told my family that I “thought” we had an earthquake before I knew there actually had been one. It was weird - just a feeling of the bed slightly vibrating - then I reached down and felt the floor (cause I thought I was nuts!!!) - the floor felt minorly shaky too.</p>
<p>So I had gone to Spring Football practice this morning… a few of the athletic training students were on the field at 5:30AM. We were driving from the football practice complex to the stadium and went past a church around 5:30.
The church sign said “Earthquake-proof your soul” :)</p>
<p>This was less than an hour after the earthquake. We’re not sure if it just happened to work out that way or if someone went out and did that bright and early…</p>
<p>Too far away to feel this one. I felt the only newsworthy earthquake Minnesota has ever had (where I was, it felt just like a truck rumbling by), but never experienced SERIOUS earthquakes until I lived in Taiwan. We lived through the 21 September 1999 earthquake there that killed more than a thousand people, being about 100 miles from the epicenter. (The nearest building to us to collapse with loss of life was a shoddily constructed apartment skyscraper about three kilometers away.) For the next week we had intermittent power outages, and my sons remember earthquakes as an occasion for candlelight dinners. I have also felt earthquakes during a summer job in Los Angeles.</p>
<p>Its all about construction. In the early 90’s our little town was the epicenter
of a 6.1—the size of quake that kills thousands in third world countries. The
houses on either side of us jumped off their foundations. It was interesting,
to say the least, watching the piano jump and jitter clear accross the room
during the temblor. On our block all of the masonry chimneys came down. We
couldnt understand why ours didnt. My H climbed the roof and just lightly
touched the brick–and the whole thing swayed! All of the mortar had turned
to sand and just by the grace of God, it stood there seemingly of its own
volition.</p>
<p>DD was awakened in her dorm room in St. Louis at @ 4:30 am, wondering why her bed was shaking. She said made a mental note to ask roommate in the morning if she felt it and fell right back to sleep.</p>
<p>At 10:15 am felt the aftershock while sitting in psychology class!</p>
<p>I didn’t feel the earthquake but then, I’m in California, not the rocking Midwest - haha.</p>
<p>It does seem strange to hear about people in the midwest feeling an earthquake when it was steady as a rock out here. Earthquakes aren’t exclusive to the west coast in this country though.</p>
<p>As a historical tidbit, this earthquake occurred on 102nd anniversary of the great San Francisco quake. The TV stations here were making a big deal of the coincidence.</p>
<p>^^San Francisco withstood the 1906 quake with only moderate damage. It was the subsequent fire and lack of water pressure to fight it with that destroyed much of the city. Kinda like Hurricane Katrina - New Orleans made it through the actual storm more or less okay, but the post-storm flooding caused by the levee breaks was what really ruined things.</p>
<p>We had a 4.5 aftershock last night around 12:30. Very short, but for those of us who have been hearing that the “big one” is coming for many years, a bit unsettling in worrying if it is really an "after"shock!</p>
<p>My D called me from Indiana where she’s on a trip for work to say she’d felt it. She was really excited–we don’t much do earthquakes in NJ. She says it was on her life list so she can check it off; now she’s aiming for tornado.</p>
![http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3038/images/seismic-hazard-map.jpg[/url]](http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2005/3038/images/seismic-hazard-map.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
