Surprising Wake Up...

At around 4:45 AM this morning I was awaken by quite a weird situation. My entire bedroom was shaking!

That's right, why up here in NW Indiana we felt the earthquake that shook southern Illinois early this morning. I have felt some small quakes before but nothing as prolonged and definite as this. It almost felt like there was a huge series of wind gusts over about 5 seconds. To be honest I think it was a little cool to have the experience. Now, hopefully this is it and this quake doesn't jump start anything in the New Madrid fault system. I've read some information in the past about the New Madrid fault system and the damage that was caused back in the early 1800's when a series of massive earthquakes rocked the New Madrid area, but I took in a little refresher course this morning. If you live in the states surrounding this fault you should really take a little time to do some research on the topic and think about what you would need to do in the situation. It's not something we think about all the time around here (like we do tornadoes), but being prepared when you first start feeling the shakes could make a big difference.

Here's a couple sites worth checking out:

USGS.gov

The Center for Earthquake Research & Information (University of Memphis)