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Viewer Comments On Illinois Earthquake - Part 1

We asked you to tell us where you were and what you felt when the earthquake hit. Here are your responses.

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I was sleeping in my bed in our Gold Coast home and awoke to hear clacking of my dresser drawer handles. I also felt as though I was on a boat!!! --Greta Huizenga


I was sitting on the couch watching Silence of The Lambs, and my crystal begin to rattle in my cabinet. I thought it was the vibration from the train; because I live right off South Chicago on the 84th Street. It only lasted for several seconds. I did not realize it was a tremor. Also, my computer was acting strange minutes after that happen. --Bobby Ward


Near North Ave. and Ashland, I was laying in bed when I heard a noise in the room. (It was the TV antenna propped up against the wall that was moving.) I kept listening and was trying to figure out what it could be when I felt the bed shake a little. I thought my heart was just beating really hard, but then I felt it further down the bed by my butt. A few minutes after, I suggested to my boyfriend, who is originally from California, that there might have been an earthquake, and he just laughed. --Jennifer M.


I am in Schaumburg, Il. at a local hotel and I heard the walls shaking for a prolonged period of time. I didn't think anything of it at first, but as the shaking prolonged I went straight to the internet to find out what happened. --Michael Raymond


Having experienced earthquakes in Greece, woken up by a rattling sound here in Arlington Heights really threw me off and for a minute scared me. Never have a felt such a strong temor, albeit a 5.4 is small in comparison to what other parts of the world are used to, but very nerveracking to say the least! Definitely got me out of bed. --Charlie


I live in Wheaton, Illinois. At 4:38 AM central time I experienced the effects of a slight tremor or earthquake today (4/18/08). My bed doesn't normally move (think Exorcist). It definitely woke me up and it rattled the blades in my fan. It wasn?t anything major but it made wonder if somewhere else in the country was getting hit much harder. --Greg Cox


I moved here from southern calif 5 years ago. I was just watching tv and heard a rumble and a slight shaking. I seen the lamps swaying and the blinds moving. I woke my husband up and he said "we don't have earth quakes here. --Lisa


I was in my bed when tremors awoke my husband and me. The whole house shook several times, as if a very large train was passing by. My husband was convinced someone was walking on our deck. I said, "What person can shake an entire house by walking on our deck? It has to be an earthquake." Even I didn't believe it when I said that. --Cynthea Leu

Lying in bed, unable to sleep, I thought my significant other was tapping the bed, then it seemed like the window Air conditioner was rattling, then it was from the other side of the house as well. Lasted maybe 20 seconds. --Christopher Boss


I was asleep in bed-felt the bed shake and woke up--Had been in a minor earthquake here in Evanston before. Got up to check the pets--My amazon parrot had flown into the living room and was being watched by my smallest cat, Clark. My husband is in the hospital--his parrots--so I had to wrangle the parrot back into his cage for the 1st time ever. All fine here now. --Judith Hladik-Voss



I live in Shorewood and our african grey parrot woke me up because she was falling all over her cage. I thought she was dying but she was just scared. Now I know why. --Myrna


It woke me from a sound sleep. It shook the bed (we sleep upstairs) and I could hear our drinking glasses rattling downstairs. --Sarah Reed


I was at home on my couch in Elgin. I thought my dog was having a seizure, sat up quickly to check him. He was still sleeping so I thought maybe I was having a spasm until I saw the CBS 2 news. --Lisa Kane


I can tell you it was felt as far north as Libertyville; I was sitting on the couch and it started shaking and I looked at my coffee cup and you coud see the vibration it was strange --Peter Sweeney


I was at work in Warrenville, IL when I felt the building quietly shaking for about 20-30 seconds. It wasn't too startling, but it definetly got my attention. --Jillian


A little after 4:30am the chair I was sitting in began to shake. (I'm at work at a hotel in Oak Brook) It was only for a few seconds. I looked outside to see if a truck or something was outside the building but there wasn't anythign there. Then a guest called me from a room on the 4th floor asking if I felt the building shake. So I called the police station and come of the officers had reported felling it as well. I just saw on your news channel that it was from an earthquake in Indiana! --Kimm B.



Located in Valparaiso IN. My husband and I felt the bed shake and we could hear the dresser drawers handles rattling. --Tammi Hall


I was sleeping....I woke up because by bed was shaking back and forth....I could not figure out why? --G.G.


My husband and I just turned on the news and saw the earthquake information. Our 11 year old daughter Magalie woke us at about 4:40 this morning and said her bed was vibrating. My husband went back to her room with her and helped her back to bed. We thought she must have had some kind of strange dream. We are in Fox River Grove. --Lori B.


My alarm clock went off at 4:30am and I was laying in bed. My bird is in my dining room and he was going crazy in his cage and I thought that was very unusual. Then all of a sudden my bed started shaking and I thought am I going crazy I jumped out of bed and just stood there it lasted about 10 seconds. I live on the second floor in a apartment building in Hobart, IN. It surely was a scary experience. --Theresa Mitchell



My husband was getting ready for work. We are police officers. I had just settled back down to sleep when I suddenly felt the bed shaking and the floor tremors. I jumped out of my bed and went into the bathroom. It was very unsettling and I called for my husband who had just went downstairs. He didn't notice it and probably thought I was mistaken or that a truck had passed down the street. I couldn't go back to sleep so I turned on the TV and saw your newscast. I'm going to call him now and tell him.
--Beverly Watson


I am here from the UK and am staying in Evanston. At about 04:40 the bed shook and I noticed the birds outside started singing as if they had been woken up. Its my second earthquake in two months after we had one in the UK. --Craig Williams



I live in the Jefferson Park area in chicago on NW side I was in living room sitting on the couch and i felt the house shack and I felt the couch also shake. --Andrew



I was on line. At first I thought it was the plant up the street blasting. Then I thought that I was getting sick. Then I realized that the bed was shaking.I then realized it was an earthquake. The entire house did actually shake. --Lil Griffin


I'm an early riser, and I was lying in bed about to get up, when I sensed a strong gust of wind hit one end of my home--and it shook a little. But ther was no wind. And then our dog jumped up and lay at the edge of the bed, and I said to myself, 'yup, it's an earthquake.' I've been through an earthquake before, when I lived in Seattle and the sensation was exactly the same. --Tim Cornillie


This morning around 4:30 am I noticed the birds stopped chirping outside my window. Within 5 minutes or so I heard change in a dish rattling. The rattling increased and decreased for over 30 seconds at which point it stopped and the birds started chirping again. My wife and I sleep on the second floor and could feel some swaying. It definitely lasted on and off for at least 30 seconds. No damage but pictures in the house were tilted. --Philip Jeanfreau, Plainfield


My husband & kids are gone, and I'm alone in the house. I woke feeling the bed shaking, like my husband was getting into the bed, and noises from the kids' rooms, like they were waking early. But then I remembered that I was alone, and feared that someone was in the house. --Karin Graddy



At 4:34AM this morning I was working on my final project for grad school when I feel the building sway, twice. I live in a high rise building of 52 floors in River North next to where Trump tower is being built and I thought that they might be doing some work or a possible. When I turned the TV to channel two this confirmed my suspicion of a tremor. I went down to the lobby & spoke with the on duty maintenance and doorman & they where totally unaware. --Delphia Walker, Chicago



Dude, I just felt everything vibrating pretty much. it lasted a good 20 or 30 seconds. It felt more intense than the only other one I felt like 5 or 6 years ago maybe? Another one in the middle of thenight. this one felt a little more powerful but not much. I can't believe people would call 911 over it lol. --Tom Federoff



We were all sleeping when our African Grey Parrot fell off his perch and started to flap his wings wildly, which in turn woke the dogs and they started barking, which got us all up, but we never knew we had an earthquake till we turned on the TV. --Paul Bartnik


I was sleeping when the noise of the house shaking woke me up around 430AM. The clanging of my jewelry in my jewelry box is what I heard the loudest. --Sara Fordham


I was watching TV and and standing and started to lose my balance and nocied the windows shaking. I though I was having a dizzy spell, until other familey member woke up and said "hey are we having a earthquake?" --O.B., Oak Park


At about 4:38am I rolled over and woke up in bed. Just so happened to feel my bed swaying back and forth and I heard some furniture in my living room creak. A little weird to feel this all the way up on the 18th floor of a highrise! --Timothy Macaskill


I live in Aurora, IL. I felt tremor about 4:30 AM when I was ready to start my day. For couple of seconds, I thought I was dreaming. Just to make sure it is earthquake, I switched on the light to check whether water in the bedside bottle is shaking. I everything settled at that moment. This is my second experience after my first in Sacramento, CA back in 2002 or 2003. --Ravi Karthik


I was lying in bed half asleep when I felt the bed move. I live in an apartment building, so I was thinking it was weird, but maybe it was the neighbors, there were a couple little bumps afterwards and I knew something was out of sorts. I remember the last quake I felt in, I think it was 1986 or so, in the evening, I was taking a shower when the medicine cabinet came open, that one was along the Indiana border south of here and felt a bit stronger to me than this one. --Richard Hagen


Felt it in Mishawaka, IN.!!! I work in an office on a mezzanine and the mezzanine was shaking enough that I was just ready to head downstairs when it stopped! Scary! --Kathie


Watching TV when the house began to creak and pop, as if a thunderstorm was appraoching (Gust front). No damage or noticeable shaking. --H. Gould, Elburn


I was working the overnight shift in a basement office in downtown Chicago (on South Michigan Ave). I immediately noticed the quake as I have felt them many times before. My computer desk vibrated and actually moved, shaking the monitor for a few seconds, as if a very heavy truck was passing in the hallway. I felt the vibrations in my chair too. I lived in Alaska for nearly 8 years and know what an earthquake feels like. Even though instinct told me what it was, I dismissed it at first. It was certainly a surprise to feel it here in Chicago, even though I am familiar with the New Madrid fault. Then I saw the news reports and realized I had been right. --Angle Colella



I was sleeping when I heard my closet doors rattling and felt my bed shaking. My husband also woke up. It was very confusing and very scary. --Catalina


My first Earthquake. Somewhere around 4:40am I was awakened by the sound of our bedroom closet doors rattling and the TV attenna scraping the wall. I also realized the bed was shaking! It woke up my wife too who said it reminded her of the tremors she experienced growing up in downstate IL. I had to jump on the internet to found out if that was what it really was. Guess she was right! --Leo Post, Chicago


I am Nicole from Valparaiso In. Around 4:35am I was woken by the bed shaking and the chimes on my grandfather clock banging together and the closet doors (that are hung at the top) were hitting into each other and it was all very loud for 4:30 am around here my dog was growling and I have to say it lasted a good 10 sec. Very scary!!! --Nicole Husiar, Valparaiso, Ind.


We were in Bethany, Illinois and in bed when suddenly everything started shaking, the bed was shaking, the windows were shaking, everything was rattling, and there was a tremendous roar outside and it sounded like a tornado with no storm. It literally shook you awake and it went on for probably about a minute. It was AMAZING how loud it was outside, just this huge roar. --Emily Scott



I was a a stoplight at 127th and Harlem in Palos, felt my car shaking and I thought boy it got windy outside. --April E.



I was in bed and just getting ready to get up - of coarse taking my time since it was early. It was an odd vibration - even felt while laying in bed. There was no sound to it. My wife was downstairs working out and she said she did not notice anything. Low and behold, I log online to read the morning news to find out it was an earthquake. The best way to describe it was a gentle shaking sensation. --Brian Grojean, Aurora


About 4:40 am I woke up to a rattling sound of something tapping on metal. My boyfriend next to me woke up right after i did and we were asking each other what this noise was. We both thought it was the other tapping on the bed. We picked our heads up and listened to it to see if we could see where it was coming from and it was definitely about ten secs later when we finally seen the metal night stand with a necklace dangling and hitting against it after that the whole attic ceiling and walls where we were sleeping started off slowly swaying and quickly started to shake faster and faster and then it just stopped. First thought I had was that we were having a earthquake and we both thought it was going to cave in. It sure did look like it was. We both jumped up ran downstairs and everything was fine. My mom also woke up from the sound of her wall mirror shaking. It seemed at that moment everything was silent. We heard nothing but the shaking of the walls. Even the birds chirping seemed to have disappeared. Dog was silent and sleeping. It was the weirdest and scariest feeling ever. So many things were going through my mind in this little amount of time. --Rebecca Garcia, Chicago


At my computer upstairs, my computer chair started swaying left and right for about 8 seconds. At first I thought it was a strong wind swaying the house, but it lasted too long and I realized I was experiencing my first earthquake. --Brian C. Milke


Slight vibration, things rattling, birds in cage flying into Plexiglas. --Amanda Camper


We just had an earthquake here at 4:49 am....i couldn't sleep, so took the dogs out, came back in the house and saw the turtle tank moving and the water bowls for the dogs splashing and the house swaying!! Very scary!! I remember one we had years ago, that was mild while working at the hospital... but this was worse.... it even woke husband up from sleep.... everything is ok now, but i thought this was it!! 
I thought i was imagining it...This felt like the one we were in when we were in Hawaii, just as bad.. you could hear a knocking on the walls, like big pipes or a big train coming by. Funny as the dogs were acting crazy wanting to go outside. --Irene Nawrocki, St. John, Ind.



I was sitting in my living room reading the Tribune, when I felt a slight earthquake tremor. It rattled the house a little bit. Checking online at the Earthquake reporting service I found that it had occurred. --Brent Jones, Oak Park


Have a bell that rang for 20-30 seconds. It was obvious when it stopped. The bell stopped shaking. Very small bell, on my book shelf. Also other things on the shelf were rattleing. --Andrew Hardt, Country Club Hills


This morning around 4:25am-4:30am I felt the building shake and the walls vibrating. Melrose/Broadway --Vito Cifaldi


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