Earthquake Rattles Evansville, Indiana

Evansville, Indiana -- It was around 4:30 am when my wife and I woke up to some loud noises and our house shaking. She instantly said, "What is that? A tornado?" We were still shaking, the house was squeaking very loudly, and I thought it must be the third earthquake I have been through since living in Evansville.

It was loud and a very violent shake, but fortunately nothing fell during what must have been a 30-second occurrence. I had time during the rattling to ask my wife to check on our son as I made my way to the door to open it up. I opened the door and the house was still shaking at the time. It finally came to a halt after what seemed like an eternity. As you could imagine, it was a very unsettling feeling, and we were just thankful that it was over finally. It seemed to end with last jarring shake. I guess if I were going to compare the noise to anything it would be when your washer and dryer are rattling one another if you've had that happen.
Except it's louder and the shake is multiplied by about 10.

Less than 5 minutes later we turned on multiple television stations to see the breaking news that an earthquake had just took place.

Byron Douglas, from our local station, WFIE, was actually on the air when it happened. They showed replays of the event over and over again. His co-anchor Beth Sweeney felt the shaking as she tossed it over to the NBC meteorologist in Evansville for a weather update. It was right on cue as the shaking started. Douglas, with a look of concern on his face, deduced quickly that it must be an earthquake.

The tower camera in the background was shaking violently. That video would later make NBC's Today Show. I only know that because my parents in Nashville, Tennessee, who also felt the trembling called me this morning to let me know they felt it, too, and saw our local weather guy on television.

Moments later, on WFIE, they said the epicenter was near Mt. Carmel, Illinois, in a small town called West Salem. That is approximately 40 miles from the Evansville metro area. News continued to come in and it was initially called a 5.4 on the Richter Scale. That I believe has since been downgraded to a 5.2.

We weren't done there. During the 10 o'clock hour we had an aftershock apparently. That was in the mid 4's on the Richter Scale, according to initial reports.
We also had an earthquake back in 2002. I remember that actually knocking off some flowers from on top of the television set.

That was a 5.0. And I believe we also had an earthquake, my first ever, back in the mid '90s. That wasn't very large, if I remember correctly. This was easily the largest of the three I have felt since living here. And the loudest -- similar sounding to what you would expect from a tornado. Our windows were rattling with this one. But at the end of the day we are just glad no one was hurt across the nation and hopefully this won't lead to a larger one in the future.

We are expected to have some aftershocks during the rest of today.