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April 18th, 2008 By Justin Williams

“I think we’re having an Earthquake.”

Well, that woke me up. All the news sources are claiming it was 10 seconds, but it felt like it was at least 20 out here in Newburgh. Definitely an offsetting feeling.

Courier’s on it

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27 Comments...add one

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Justin Williams

April 18, 2008 @ 04:59AM

Courier says it was a 5.4

Friends up in West Lafayette felt it, though I haven’t seen anything in their papers yet.

USGS say it was a 5.4

jannette

April 18, 2008 @ 05:05AM

oh yeah i was awaken by hearing my light in my ceiling shaken so yes i believe we had an earthquake

jinhai

April 18, 2008 @ 05:09AM

I felt strong shake of the house, then another slight shake at around 4:00AM to 5:00AM. West Evansville, 47712.

azrael

April 18, 2008 @ 05:13AM

i felt here in mount vernon in. i was almost asleep and it started shakeing. freaked me out..

Justin Williams

April 18, 2008 @ 05:14AM

IndyStar has their story up

BREAKING NEWS. WE HAVE REPORTS OF DAMAGE. ITS EVANSVILLE FOOD EDITOR REPORTS A BROKEN PICTURE FRAME. END BREAKING NEWS

Andrew Campbell

April 18, 2008 @ 05:19AM

Just wanted to drop in, Im from Austin,IN and it woke everybody up here…cell phone going crazy.

zrx1200r

April 18, 2008 @ 05:20AM

at least 20 secs, if not longer. plus a lull before minor shaking. sitting in company truck, it was like people were rocking it.

news just said 30-40 secs.

john

April 18, 2008 @ 05:20AM

I work at nights in Kansas City and I felt strange and the computer monitors shook. I didn’t say nothing becaue I thought it was the person in the cube next to me making it shake. Then someone else mentioned it, which caused everyone on our IT floor to talk about it!

Travis

April 18, 2008 @ 05:35AM

I thought it was a train at first..but the ground was moving up and down and not just rumbling like it does.

So I threw down my toothbrush and ran to the nearest doorway…shouting for my roommates to get up. Needless to say we were all a little freaked out.

I even noticed that Byron Douglas could barely get through the forecast on 14.

Its funny how you prepare for this stuff all the time, and think you forget what to do until it happens.

Justin Williams

April 18, 2008 @ 05:38AM

Byron Douglas’s on-air segment inspired the title of this post.

john

April 18, 2008 @ 05:42AM

I’m in Sullivan, and felt it pretty good. It was more like a jolt, a big jolt.

I just heard from a friend North of Atlanta who felt it too.

Mardeux

April 18, 2008 @ 05:45AM

…its the only time I can remember standing outside at 5 am and having an intelligent comversation with my neighbors…who incidently were in their underwear !!

Travis

April 18, 2008 @ 05:52AM

I agree it was longer than 10 Seconds.

Lori

April 18, 2008 @ 06:59AM

Woke me up from a sound sleep. Went to go get the kids, but it was tappering off and they were still sleeping. Some how, I immediately knew what it was.
Just heard about concern about the bridges. Byron said no need to worry, needs to be 5.9 or higher before damage is likely. Hello, 5.4…not a huge difference, is there???

Chimpie

April 18, 2008 @ 07:19AM

Stay safe Evansville. Be prepared for aftershocks.

Chimpie in Florida

Travis

April 18, 2008 @ 07:38AM

Quote of the day…as I show up for my job to do the news on several radio stations…my boss Gene:

“Here I am thinking it’ll be a normal run of the mill morning. Just a few stories about fundraisers and feature stuff from the weekend. Then…BAM!…the Earth starts shaking.”

I think that’s how most of us in the news biz thought this morning would go. LOL.

Chimpie

April 18, 2008 @ 07:49AM

If you go to YouTube.com, search for ‘earthquake’, change Relevance to Date Added and there’s already a page worth of adds.

ron

April 18, 2008 @ 07:49AM

It was definitely longer than 10 seconds.
The picture at the top is cracking me up.

Ali

April 18, 2008 @ 08:21AM

Definitely lasted for longer than 10 seconds. I had enough time to sit up, process what was happening, run across the hall to grab my kiddo and then stand in a doorway for quite a while until it stopped. Finally went back to bed and I’m pretty sure there was a quick aftershock sometime before 5 AM. I was half asleep though so I might’ve dreamed it.

Cherish

April 18, 2008 @ 08:43AM

Ok, So I think I am the only person in Evansville that did not feel the earthquake. Is that possible???

Leslie

April 18, 2008 @ 09:14AM

You didn’t dream it, I felt a quick aftershock, too, just after I got out of bed and turned on the news at about 4:38. I thought the initial quake lasted about ten seconds, but most others say it lasted longer, so I guess I didn’t wake up until the last part of it. It was freaky. Later on, when someone nearby started their motorcycle to go to work, I nearly jumped out of my skin thinking it was another earthquake.

I’m on the west side of Evansville, btw.

darcie

April 18, 2008 @ 09:41AM

I thought my hubby was having a seizure (sp) I was awake and in bed reading and felt the bed shake….then when it didn’t stop, my hubby put his hand out and I took out my earplugs and he said ” hey…we’re having an earthquake”. It totally woke him out of sleep….On the news I heard it was a 5.4 now I’m reading 5.2…which is it?

Diane

April 18, 2008 @ 10:11AM

I immediately turned on Channel 14 after the shaking stopped and Byron was calmly doing the weather. That’s when I freaked out because I thought our house was sliding into a sinkhole (I’m in Newburgh, so yes that’s a possibilty). Luckily Byron finally said something after he finished the weather so I knew it wasn’t just me.

cody

April 18, 2008 @ 10:31AM

people are feeling the after shocks in owensborro and parts of evansville i am at AT&T on north green and havent felt anything

Diane

April 18, 2008 @ 10:49AM

The news is reporting the aftershock at ~10:20am was a 4.5.

Jenna

April 18, 2008 @ 06:19PM

It woke me and my family up, all 4 of us, and scared us and the animals half to death. My little sister and I stood in a doorway, while my dad was upstairs yelling “what the hell is happening!?” Did anyone hear the noise it made? Like a deep low rumble, at the same time loud….I heard it, and then doubted myself because it sounded so weird, but then, I definitely heard it.

I felt the aftershock, about 10:15….however I was in the oral surgeons office to get my wisdom teeth out, luckily they hadn’t started yet!!! I thought “thank god! they haven’t!” But I didn’t ask the nurse if she felt it too since they had just had me using a gas mask for about 5 minutes….so I wasn’t sure until I checked my phone an hour later and had several text messages about it….

John Lord

April 18, 2008 @ 11:49PM

It was downgraded to a 5.2. And in fact there is a HUGE difference in strength between 5.4 and 5.7. The scale isn’t linear, it’s exponential.
According to wikipedia, a 6.0 earthquake is 31.6 times as strong as a 5.0 is.
As a real-world example, there was a 5.7 earthquake in the USSR in 1986 that destroyed 1500 buildings.