Sunday, February 16, 2014

Two Unusual Natural Events

We have had an interesting week with natural occurrences here in the southeast.  You midwesterners will laugh, but we have had quite a snowstorm.  Didn't get the 8-12 inches originally forecast, but we did get about 6 total - the first two melted after the first wave of the storm, and the rest was pushed down by ice.  And the storm lasted over 48 hours, which is very unusual for the south.

The neighbors called and offered their four-wheelers - Mary Lee (who came home for the duration) and Mike went out to enjoy them.


Then, late Friday night, we received . . . an earthquake!!  I had gone to bed and heard this massive shaking sound, and also what sounded like someone who weighed about 500 pounds running up and down our hallway.  We live near a small airport so thought maybe a plane was making too low an approach, but that didn't sound right either.  I went out and asked Mike and he said the only thing that could have caused that kind of shaking and noise was an earthquake.  A few minutes later the U.S. Geologic Survey had it on their website--it was 4.1 magnitude and centered in Edgefield, which is about an hour and a half from here.  (For you history and political buffs, that is also the birthplace and burial place of Senator Strom Thurmond.)  The quake was not big enough to cause much damage, but definitely big enough to experience.

Rhoda is here now, spending a three-day weekend with Mom and Dad.  Hopefully it will be a quiet and peaceful weekend!

Have any of you ever been in an earthquake?

4 comments:

Nog Blog said...

I heard about that earthquake and wondered how far from you it was. Probably kind of a fun experience, wasn't it? Considering no one got hurt and all. :)

Hope you have had a good weekend with Rhoda and family and that Rhoda gets home safely.

Ada said...

WOW! You've had quite a time the last few days. We have felt light earthquakes several times. Once when Angela was a baby and I was feeding her. By the time I realized what it was, it was all over. There have been others also. In case you don't know, there is a huge fault running from St. Louis to Chicago and we might experience a huge earthquake someday.

Hope you've all had a nice visit with Rhoda. And that your snow melts soon and you get nice warm weather.

clevekath said...

Interesting! And it can be a little scary. I've experienced 3 earthquakes. 1) while sitting in ISU's Milner Library studying in 1967 (or 68?) when it sounded like a locomotive rumbling thru with shaking. 2) about 1984 while in my car talking to a man who was standing beside the car. I thought he was playing games with me by shaking my car...but it was a true earthquake. 3) About 10 years ago at 4 a.m. in the morning when our bed shook and shook, waking us up. I got up and turned on CNN...sure enough, a widespread earthquake.
Thanks for the post!! Enjoy the rare snow, too. Hi to R2k

Ann said...

About ten years ago I was lying in bed and felt a very gentle rocking of the mattress at about 4:30 in the morning. I thought it was one of the kids, as that is how they used to try to wake me up when they were little. After consciousness set in I realized--they wouldn't still wake me up that way, and it must be an earthquake. Which it was--centered over northeast Alabama. That was my only other experience.