Hey, I felt the earth move under my feet — did you?
Sitting at my desk, working on this issue of The Vista, I suddenly felt a vibration on my keyboard.
Looking over at the bottled water I had just opened, the liquid was bouncing like a T-Rex was running toward my desk.
My brain was working quickly and I remember all sorts of things running through my mind. I thought maybe the vibration was my stomach — those wings I had the night before bucking like a bull at a rodeo.
But then I thought — no, it couldn’t be — could it? An EARTHQUAKE?!
The entire building was moving slightly and I got up out of my chair and, as I opened the front door, noticed various items on the wall shaking like the last piece of pizza at Bubba’s family reunion.
I looked outside and the earth was not opening up and swallowing anything. Whew!
Cars were driving up and down Peavine Rd. — actually improving the driving of some in our area.
Soon, my daughter texted that the whole house had been shaking. “Creepy,” she said.
Yeah, big-time creepy. (Maybe not as creepy as the girl with the talking second head on those Cars.com commercials. Now THAT is creepy and freaky rolled into a big ball of weird).
But she was right. It produced in me a feeling of uneasiness. I realized — despite having no confirmation as yet — that I had just experienced my first earthquake. At least one that I actually felt.
I then went to your source of news and mine — no, not CNN — rather, Facebook.
No one had yet commented on this earth-shaking event. Undaunted, I wrote a status asking Facebook friends in the area to let me know if they felt it, too, and their experiences. Here are a couple:
“Wow, I thought it was the crowd at Neyland,” said one friend who lives in Knoxville.
“My wife said the whole house was shaking but I was asleep and didn’t wake up.”
“I was sleeping and it woke me,” said another. “I thought the cat jumped on my bed or something … thought I was losing my mind.”
Finally, confirmation came.
An earthquake measuring a preliminary magnitude of 4.3 on the Richter scale, and centered near Whitesburg, Ky., was reported on the U.S. Geological Survey site.
Jessica Winton at the U.S. National Weather Service in Morristown said the office has received calls from throughout Eastern Tennessee, Western North Carolina and Eastern Kentucky about experiencing the quake.
“Usually if it gets over 2.0 or 2.5 you can feel it,” she said. “We felt it here.”
Reports indicate the earthquake occurred around 11:08 A.M. Fairfield Glade time. I recall glancing at my cell phone and the clock said 11:08 and I have it set a couple minutes fast.
Reports out of Knoxville said books were falling off shelves and walls shaking.
The USGS says, most of North America east of the Rocky Mountains, has infrequent earthquakes. Most of the enormous region from the Rockies to the Atlantic can go years without an earthquake large enough to be felt, and several U.S. states have never reported a damaging earthquake.
In short, they are rare in these parts.
It is good to note the fact that the Whitesburg, KY Fire Department said there were no reports of any bodily injury from the quake or serious property damage. However, they were getting calls from all over — North Carolina, West Virginia, Cincinnati, OH, and Tennessee — from people who felt the quake.
And then it struck me: we were just the ripple effect. After all, Whitesburg is approximately 240 miles from Fairfield Glade.
“Wow, what power!” I thought, as I imagined those poor folks who have endured major earthquakes …
Suddenly, I was shaking again.