No...never! Oh I forgot...we had an earthquake this morning! Missy thought a ghost was shaking her bed, and I thought our house was falling in a sink hole...normal reactions, hey?
Rumbling shakes, awakes metro Atlantans
By MIKE MORRIS
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
An earthquake that got rolling in northeast Alabama shook North Georgia awake at 5 a.m. today.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported that the temblor was centered near Fort Payne, Ala., and registered a 4.9 on the Richter Scale.
Linda Clark, a Red Cross volunteer working in the DeKalb County, Ala., emergency operations center in Fort Payne, said they had received only two reports of minor damage.
One home had cracks in the foundation, and a house trailer shifted on its foundation, Clark said, adding that no injuries were reported.
Clark, who lives near the Georgia line in Mentone, described the quake as "windows rattling and a loud boom. I thought it was an explosion, a loud, loud boom."
Other emergency officials also said they had not heard any reports of serious damage.
"We have not heard of any damage. It was certainly felt by a large number of people" said John Minsch, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Johnny Lane, an employee at the Waffle House on Bells Ferry Road in Kennesaw, said, "we were sitting here and the windows started shaking." Lane said there was no damage from the rumbling, which lasted 8 to 10 seconds.
Marc D. Hasbrouck of Loganville said he was "reading a New York Times book review of 'Krakatoa, The Day The World Exploded' when my house started to tremble. Items on my desk shook, as did the chair in which I was sitting."
Fort Payne is in the northeast corner of Alabama, about 15 miles from the Georgia line and about 115 miles from Atlanta.
The quake was felt as far away as North Carolina and Kentucky and as far south as Mobile, Ala.
"My whole house shook, I could feel the whole wave go north to south," said Barry Goodno, a Georgia Tech structural engineering professor who specializes in earthquakes. "Everything was rattling through the room. It was not what I expected in Georgia.
"It's the kind of motion that could weaken structures or cause further damage," Goodno said. "It's not something to be overlooked. This could be a precursor, it could be a one-time release of energy, it could be an indication of things to come for several weeks."
In Kentucky, state police said callers reported the tremor lasted from seven to eight seconds. In Tennessee, reports came from people in several counties, reporting that the quake was felt as a shudder and heard as a low rolling, like thunder.
David Ludecke, who opens up the Gold's Gym Peachtree City East on Ga. 54, said the tremors happened right before 5 a.m.
"The reason I know that is because it's right before I opened up. There were people standing outside waiting to get in and I was busy trying to get the computer running.
"I thought they were rattling the doors to get in, that's what it sounded like. I was frustrated because that seemed really excessive. 'What's going on here?' I thought. But when I looked up, they were just standing out there talking."
"I thought there was a big 500-pound guy at the foot of my bed shaking it," said Suzanne Stone of Peachtree City. "I thought somebody had broken in. I was afraid to open my eyes."
"I woke up and my bed was shaking. Then it felt like somebody jumped on my bed. I jumped up and said, 'that must be an earthquake,' " said Bonnie Campbell of Peachtree City.
Like many people, Wendy Mashburn of Sharpsburg in Coweta County was awakened b y the shaking.
"Something woke me up. I just decided to get out of bed to see what it was. The whole floor was skaking," Mashburn said. "I jumped back into bed. I felt it for at least 20 seconds. I felt like I was sitting on a vibrating bed that was surfing."
Calls flooded police dispatchers
"We had about 16 or 17 calls pending at one time," said Vernita Boddie, a dispatcher in the DeKalb County 911 center.
Boddie said that while the calls came from throughout the county, there were no reports of damage.
"Everybody was fine, they were just a little scared," she said. "They were a little panicky."
Other metro police jurisdictions also reported no damage.
A spokesman for the state Department of Transportation said there were no reports of damage to roads or bridges.
"This is considered pretty minor," said Christian Harris. "We don't expect any damage on any of our structures [though] we will be checking."
Amber Cook, a 911 operator in Gwinnett County, said she and her co-workers felt the floor jiggle and the televisions suspended from the ceiling started to sway.
"My supervisor, Vanessa Muckle, said, 'Did you feel that?' and I said, 'Yeah, I felt that,' " Cook said. "We were astonished. We live in Georgia."
Then, she said, 911 calls started flooding in. "It was immediate," Cook said. "Most people were thinking people were trying to break in." She said the calls started fading after about 20 minutes.
A Cobb County police dispatcher said they were swamped with calls not only from Cobb, but overflow calls from neighboring counties.
-- Staff writers Nancy Badertscher and Ralph Ellis contributed to this article. |
