5.4 earthquake hits Illinois!

I know I am not crazy. I just felt the ground shake. Thought it was a truck.

Nope, an earthquake just hit. 5.4 is what Fox News is reporting. No other agency is reporting it yet. My friend texted and said her bed was swaying in Plainfield.

Here is the AP report:

WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) — A 5.4 earthquake that appeared to rival the strongest recorded in the region rocked people awake as far away as Milwaukee early Friday, surprising residents unaccustomed to such a powerful Midwest temblor.

The quake just before 4:37 a.m. was centered 6 miles from West Salem, Ill., and 66 miles from Evansville, Ind. It awakened people in neighboring Indiana and even Milwaukee, Wis., 350 miles north of the epicenter.

“It shook our house where it woke me up,” said David Behm of Philo, 10 miles south of Champaign. “Windows were rattling, and you could hear it. The house was shaking inches. For people in central Illinois, this is a big deal. It’s not like California.”

The quake also shook tall buildings in downtown Indianapolis, about 160 miles northeast of the epicenter.

Indiana State Police spokesman Sgt. Todd Ringle in Evansville said there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake occurred in the Illinois basin-Ozark dome region that covers parts of Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas and stretches from Indianapolis and St. Louis to Memphis, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

The organization’s Web site said earthquakes occur irregularly in the area, and that the largest historical earthquake in the region — also a magnitude 5.4 — caused damage in southern Illinois in 1968.

This day in history: The San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. Hmmmmm

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