Shake, rattle and...

Yes, we felt it.

We had a magnitude 5.2 earthquake this morning at 4:37, centered in eastern Illinois, near the Indiana border. We had a pretty hefty aftershock at 10:15, with a magnitude of 4.6.

Here's what the big quake looked like on the Evansville, Ind., morning newscast:



I woke up when I heard everything on the dresser shaking, plus the windows... I thought it was thunder, or maybe a big truck, but of course it lasted a lot longer than either of those would have. In the morning, Emilyn asked: "Did you hear the thunder last night?" I didn't know for sure yet that we'd had an earthquake, and I didn't want to worry her... (She now knows we had a couple of small quakes.)

A few hours later, Allen and I were in the living room for the big aftershock... The fireplace grate started rattling, and I went into the kitchen to note the time. (The little guy didn't notice a thing.) I panicked for a second, because I had Allen to worry about, but it was over quickly. I knew the newscast at 11 would tell me if it was a real aftershock, and it was... a pretty big one, they said. They said the aftershocks would come at decreasing intensity for as many as three weeks!

All of this came not on the famous New Madrid fault, but its lesser cousin, the Wabash fault. In eastern Illinois, there was damage to some buildings, and some old brick homes here had cracks. But the roads and bridges all checked out OK.