Earthquake Rocks Entire Midwest Region, Scares Writer

Illinoians waking up this morning will be hearing news of an earthquake in their state.

At 4:30 a.m. on Friday, I was awakened by the bed shaking and the window rattling. It lasted less than a minute. I got up and checked the child. OK. I thought the spring storm that was headed this way was here. I looked outside - nothing. I wandered around my home wondering if an unidentified flying object was parked out in the back yard. Perhaps I'd just been visited by a poltergeist who was trying to communicate with me (or my bedroom) while I was sleeping? Nope, none of the above. It was a Midwestern earthquake.

The 5.2 earthquake was 21 miles southwest of Vincennes, Indiana, which is 295 miles from my home in Henry County, Illinois. 120 miles give or take from St. Louis. No injuries have been reported at this time. But there was some damage to buildings near the epicenter. The epicenter for you all who've not needed to know the meaning until now is the main focus point or start point of the earthquake.

I find the whole matter quite chilling. Being born and raised in the Midwest, I've never had any cause to become acquainted with earthquake facts or the possibility of an earthquake happening. That scenario is changing right along with the climate of the Earth.

I know you Californians will say, "Oh yeah, a 'BIG' earthquake in Indiana, whoopee." You'll probably shrug and go back to your morning routines, take out the trash, crack some eggs. But have a little compassion. Do you remember your first earthquake? That is how I feel right now. Like the world really IS a big place and I've got no freaking control over it! I don't even have a dust mite's grasp of what the hell an earthquake is! I had to go to Wiki and look it up!

A few years ago, in June 2004, there was an earthquake near Ottawa, Illinois. It's magnitude was 4.2. Family members told of how they had felt that shaker in their beds as well. It seems to me that one of my family members reported wetting the bed at the onset of that quake. Or maybe that was when they had actually seen a UFO? Can't remember. Anyway that was not a poltergeist either.

Find out more about earthquakes and other natural phenomena at the US Geological survey website http://www.usgs.gov. or at wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthquake.