Many felt the earth move under their feet
By TOM LOEWY
The Register-Mail
Posted Apr 18, 2008 @[EMAIL PROTECTED]
10:06 PM
GALESBURG — Max is a well-feed Pekingese who vociferously barks at other
dogs and any people walking the sidewalks around Anne Moody’s house at
290 Ohio St.
But the little dog who should be smaller didn’t budge at around 4:40
a.m. Friday.
> “I was on the couch watching the controversial Don Imus and the couch
> started to shake,” Moody said. “Max never made a peep. But the couch
> was moving and all I could think was ‘What else is wrong with me?’
“I thought I was having some sort of attack or something.”
Moody’s strange experience was shared by others.
Those up early felt the earth move and more than a few folks had sleep
interrupted when a 5.2 magnitude earthquake rattled tall buildings as
far away as Chicago and Milwaukee, but appeared to cause no major
injuries or damage.
The quake stated just before 4:37 a.m. was centered six miles from West
Salem in southeastern Illinois. It caused no major damage, but was felt
from Des Moines, Iowa, to Atlanta.
Moody had reason to suspect her health. She is a three-time cancer
survivor who is still battling the disease in her thyroid.
“The cancer is not gone yet,” she said. “The radiation has suppressed
it. The key is to keep it in my neck.”
Moody never suspected moving plates.
> “I just kept watching the show — I’m new to DirectTV and I like to watch
> Imus in the morning. I just figured I was having some weird reaction. I
> have some hearing issues, so I didn’t hear anything shaking.
“I didn’t find out that it was a earthquake until around 11 o’clock,
when I read it on The Register-Mail’s Website. I was glad it didn’t do
any damage, then I was glad the whole thing wasn’t just me.”
People who contacted The Register-Mail said they at first laid blame for
the shaking on any number of unusual suspects, including ghosts and
misbehaving pets.
Karen Kraft immediately suspected a quake when she woke up early Friday
morning.
“The first thing I heard was the rattling of the handles on my chest of
drawers. Then I felt my bed move,” Kraft said. “My husband had already
gone to work, so I knew I was the only one in the house.
“I thought it was an earthquake and then I thought to myself ‘No way.’ ”
Kraft lives two blocks from the railroad tracks in East Galesburg. In
what she called a “sleep-befuddled state,” Kraft thought a train might
have caused the shaking.
“Or worse yet, I thought maybe one derailed. My house was shaking pretty
good and I got up to look out the windows to see if a train had
derailed.”
The 44-year-old Kraft said she remembers the quake of 1988.
“It happened probably between 6 and 8 p.m. and it seems like it was
summer, because I remember it was still light out. I remember my husband
and I were watching TV. I was in a chair and he was laying on the floor
and when the shaking started we looked at each other like ‘What are you
doing?’
“Then my husband got up and said ‘What the heck was that?’ When I felt
the house move again this time, I knew deep down that it was an
earthquake. That was a rude awakening.”
People from all over Knox County — and a few from points beyond —
contacted The Register-Mail via e-mail. A person who signed as Pat T.
said the quake offered a welcome shake.
“I felt (it) in Abingdon and I loved it, reminded me of being back home
in Los Angeles – I like earthquakes much better than your tornados.”
Like Moody, more than a few people were relieved to learn the culprit
behind the shake wasn’t a supernatural presence or an altered state of
consciousness.
http://www.galesburg.com/columnists/x317097451?view=print
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