Did you feel it? Earthquake affects folks in different ways

Some worry, others dismiss morning's tremors

Some worry, others dismiss the tremors

Seven miles below the earth, giant tectonic plates moved just before dawn Friday, sending seismic waves across the Midwest and registering 5.2 on the Richter scale.

Jennifer Dellaperuta-French didn't feel a thing

"I found out at 5:15 that there was an earthquake," said the Fox Lake resident who started her day at 4 a.m.

More coverage Scientists say Midwest quakes poorly understood [4/19/08]Back to bed: It was just an earthquake [4/19/08]Earthquake in a burglar's disguise [4/19/08] 5.2 earthquake rocks Illinois; felt 450 miles away [4/18/08] 1811 New Madrid quake Video What did you feel? Join our commenting community below and tell us your story about this morning's earthquake.

"I heard about it on the radio."

Classified as a moderate quake, the tremor that began around 4:30 a.m. disrupted life near its epicenter in southeastern Illinois but apparently left only minor injuries and minimal damage in its wake.

While many slept through the event, Barb Haynes of Arlington Heights was wide awake when her kitchen stool started vibrating.

"My cup of coffee rattled off the counter onto the floor, my pictures turned cock-eyed, and one clock fell off the wall," she said.

The 65-year-old has lived through an earthquake before, so this time "I was more curious than anything," Haynes said.

Early bird Dennis Ehrhardt and his wife were "half asleep and half awake" in their Carol Stream home when the bed began moving.

"It was definitely a shock," Ehrhardt said. "The whole bed shook. Then the handles on the dresser started flapping."Aftershocks continued all morning, one with a Richter scale magnitude of 4.6. Officials cautioned those could continue for the next week.The area of southeast Illinois where the quake occurred has a history of activity linked to the New Madrid fault, located near Mount Carmel, Ill.Earthquakes in 1811 and 1812 from the fault, which is a crack in the earth's crust, reached estimated levels of 8 on the Richter scale."They made the Mississippi run backward. They rang church bells on the Eastern seaboard," Southern Illinois University geophysicist Harvey Henson Jr. said.Friday's tremor originated from the Wabash Valley fault that branches out from the New Madrid system."The old fault system responds to stresses transmitted from thousands of miles away," Northern Illinois University geology professor Philip Carpenter said. "This is pretty typical for that area."A grade of 5.2 on the Richter scale, which measures the energy released by an earthquake along with the size of the fault structure, is characterized as moderate, Carpenter said. Usually earthquakes aren't noticeable until they hit 3 or higher.In 1968, an earthquake that registered 5.4 hit the area. The most recent seismic activity occurred in 2002 with a 5.0 quake.The state dispatched crews to check on roads, bridges, buildings and the water supply. Early reports indicated damage to some chimneys and homes, a collapsed wall at an apartment complex and broken water line in Lawrence and Wabash counties.While the quake rattled skyscrapers in Chicago's Loop, Illinois Institute of Technology structural engineering professor Eduardo De Santiago said towers in the state could handle the incident because, in general, they're designed for high winds."When you design for the wind, it covers the seismic area," he said.Eerie wake-up callSome area residents who were roused from a sound sleep by the tremors initially put it down to a bad dream."I woke up last night because I felt like I was inside an ultrasonic cleaner," Linda Bendorf of Arlington Heights said."I thought to myself, 'How bizarre. Everything is shaking. I must be dreaming.' "As he typed a message on his computer at Barrington Middle School Prairie Campus, Barrington Police Sgt. Kevin Croke felt his squad car rocking side to side."I stuck my head out the window to look behind me to see if maybe one of the other officers had snuck up on me and was shaking my car as a joke," he said.He dismissed it as the wind only to learn 20 minutes later what happened.Libertyville Public Works Director John Heinz's cat woke him when it sought refuge on his bed."I was either hearing something or feeling something like a plane or a truck going by. I thought, 'That's kind of weird,' " Heinz said. "It wasn't even a rumble. I could hear things shaking a little bit. It was very subtle but unusual that time of day."Deborah Finley, a writer who lives in Island Lake, was working at her desk at about 4:30 a.m. when her chair started shaking. Her husband had already left for work and she was alone, and startled."I thought, 'This is really weird. #8230; Am I imagining this because I'm sleep-deprived?' " she said.Then the floor started shaking."I'm not a paranoid person or anything like that. But I didn't know what to think," Finley said. One thought she had was that her furnace was about to blow up."Why would I think it's an earthquake? That's not the norm," she said. "I was just in shock. It was freaking me out."Both Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington and Northwest Community Hospital in Arlington Heights reported tremors."There was some minor rumbling, but we didn't see anything significant. No equipment was damaged or patients affected," Northwest spokesman Blaine Krage said.In the wake of the earthquake, state officials warned people to beware of insurance scams or phony repair companies.Much of the insurance claim activity is coming from southern Illinois, State Farm Insurance spokeswoman Missy Lundberg said.State Farm, which insures one in three households in Illinois, had received 20 claims as of Friday afternoon but expected more as people inspect their properties.The problems are mostly cracked foundations and drywall, Lundberg said. 366512An emergency vehicle waits at the scene where rubble from earthquake damage lies strewn along a sidewalk in an old section of Louisville, Ky., Friday.Associated Press