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Viewer Comments On Illinois Earthquake - Part 5

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 in bed just lying back down from giving my feverish 5 year old medicine. When I felt my bed move back and forward twice I raised my head and thought "wow, you've fallen into a heavy sleep". There is no way I would've assumed we were having an earthquake. --Felicia


I was lying on the sofa and it started to shake. I thought I was dreaming, then I went upstairs and the dresser was shaking as well. I thought it was just the wind, because we don't get earthquakes. I made sure the children were okay and I went to bed. My husband slept right throught the whole thing. I am in Aurora,IL. --Jernelle


I live about a block from the Sears Tower by Union Station on the 7th floor of our condo building. I immediatly awoke to our windows rattling and it sounded like our bedroom ceiling was about to crack open. I immediately glanced out the window to see if the Sears Tower was swaying but didn't notice anything fortunately. It's an experience I'll never forget! --Brian Jansen


I am in Ironton Mo. I was on the internet talking with my daughter in Africa. all of a sudden my house begin to rumble and my desk I was sitting at begin to shake anlong with the computor screen. I said to her , We are having a earthquake. This was about ten something this am. I was on the phone with her from ten to ten forty seven so it was about half way in between the conversation. It was definitly a quake because I could feel it in the floor and watched as it moved the things in front of me. We both said we had just read about the one in Ill. this am. and now we are having one. --beverly smith


I'm located in Uptown Chicago, near Foster and Sheridan. I was sleeping in my bed during both quakes and was roused by my building vibrating and swaying. The 4:40am quake was much more noticeable, stronger and more lasting. I checked the times on your website of when the quakes occurred downstate and noticed that it took the tremblor wave about 2 minutes to travel 250 miles north to reach me in Chicago. --Jim Schmidt


I was sound asleep when it happened. It felt like someone was violently shaking my bed. I soon realized what was happening and kept still until all the shaking stopped. I then walked around the house to see if there was any damage, but there was none. I thought of early man and how he must have been certain that such an event was a sign from an evil spirit or some malevolent god. That can be a pretty frightening experience. --Claire


you guys are nuts! i did not feel anything.....!!! --nik


I'm in Forest Park, IL. Around 4:40 a.m. my bed rocked as if a large dog was underneath it and had stood up and stretched. Weird! Weird feeling I had never experienced before in our little ole Forest Park. --Nancy Schnurstein


I was at home in bed when I was woken up by a lamp shaking more than wind would be able to shake to it. I then touched the lamp and a few other other objects and realized my entire apartment building was shaking! It was the oddest feeling! --Sarah


The strange thing is last night (4/17) around 10:30-11pm me and my fianc? felt a loud boom and felt our windows rattle, when we went to the window we saw other resident in our Pilsen neighborhood looking out theirs. What was this loud boom heard the night before around Cermak and Western a preshock, a harbinger? It was big whatever it was. Anyone hear this boom in Pilsen? --Joel Bruner


I live in southeast Iowa. My husband woke me up when the first earthquake happened. He thought the cats were somehow shaking the dressers, but I told him it must be an earthquake, and I was right. I felt the second quake a little while ago. I was sitting here at my desk and everything started shaking. At first I thought it would just be a minor aftershock, but then the shaking got worse and I was alarmed for a minute. But then things settled down again. I've been in earthquakes in Oregon, so I know what they are like. It's uncanny, though, out here in the Midwest, how far away you can feel them. My insurance agent thought I was crazy to put an earthquake rider on my homeowner's policy. No damage, of course, this far away. But I certainly have "told you so" rights. --C. M. Malm


I live in Lincoln Park on the top floor of a walk-up. At about 4:35 I was about to get out of bed to go to the bathroom so I was only still half asleep. Then I felt 6 or 7 consecutive thumps shake my bed and the entire building. Very odd feeling, as I've never felt an earthquake before. I don't think it last more than 10 or 15 seconds. I was jolted awake, so I turned on the news to see if it really was an earthquake. I'm fairly new to the area so hearing about the Wabash and New Madrid faults was an education. --Gill


WELL WHEN THE EARTHQUAKE STRIKE I WAS SITTING IN MY CHAIR AND THE CHAIR SHOOK AND MY T.V. ALMOST FELL OFF MY WALL. --SUE TUNBERG FROM SPRING GROVE, ILL.


There was a SECOND TREMOR just 20 minutes ago or so (around 10:20 am CST). At my desk felt it and so did my wife. She even said she heard the window crack, but luckily no damage. --Lou Alexandrov


I was in bed at the time. I thought one of my cats was on my bed but when I heard from a friend who posted a myspace message that it was an earthquake in Illinois I was shocked. --Danny Caccioppo


it just happened again! like 1015 am, anyone feel it --Luisa


Mother-in-law felt it in Harvest, AL. Said she awoke to items on her dresser rattling. She thought she was dreaming until she heard about the earthquake. --Michelle Williams


I was up sick and miserable taking medicine when I decided to go to bed. As I closed my eyes my bed is vibrating. I felt it for a couple of seconds but didn't know what in the world was going on. Now at 10:15am I felt something smaller, just wondering if anyone else felt it....maybe an after shock??? who knows now! --Peri


My African Grey lost half his feathers, jumping and flying all around the cage at 4:30 this morning. --Ed


When you wake up in the middle of the night disoriented, you don't always think straight. "Earthquake" went through my head briefly, but outside of a slight vibration and dizziness, I didn't feel anything and almost fell back asleep. Then, our African Gray parrot starts thrashing wildly in its cage in the other room, screeching and yelling. We couldn't figure out what was wrong, until I heard the news about it this morning. --Mike


Tremors in Cicero 10:15 am --Kenya Driver


I live in Arlington Heights, IL.It was around 4.30 am and I had gotten up to go to the bathroom and soon after I got back into my bed and I felt it shaking. The windows that were overhead my bed were rattling, also. I thought it was maybe a large truck passing by. It was eerie because my bed was slightly moving under me. There was no damage to my home, and the funny thing was, that my 8 month old puppy was awake before me, and we were both looking at each other while this was happening, he seemed to not be badly affected, though. Soon, after that I fell back asleep. It was quite a first time experience for me. --Sandhya Verma


Was there just another one? I felt the couch moving at 10:14am. --Tracie Hanson


I am in Lincolnshire..at its 10:19am. I am feeling shakes here! I am just wondering are we having after shocks! --Carla Singeton


My wife and I were awakened whened our bed started to shake and creak. We live in L.A. for 25 years, so we always wake up during a quake, and knew right away what it was. And said to each other: Earthquake? We're in Chicago (a little confusing; at first thought I was back in L.A.). Turned on the TV -- nothing. In L.A.they would have been telling us where it was and the estimated magnitude right away. Of course, in L.A. it could have been a lot worse (when I was at work on the 44th floor I felt quates wher the epicenter was as far away as San Francisco and Mexico City). --Robert Avery


It woke me up in my bedroom. There was a constant rat-tat-tat noise coming from the walls but very little movement that I could feel. It sounded like a woodpecker in the wall. I did not know it was an earthquake until I saw the morning news on t.v. --Bonnie Wolff


I had just gone to bed and was trying to fall asleep when I felt what I thought was someone at the end of my bed frame pushing it back and forth a couple of times. I turned on a light and looked at my room mate, who didn't seem disturbed by the movement at all. I'm from Pennsylvania origially, and I've never been in an earthquake before, but it was the first logical explanation I could give myself. All I could think was "Was that an earthquake? This close to Chicago?" It was a litle unsettling, but also pretty fascinating when I found out that it actually was an earthquake! --Rachel Dlugopolski


I woke up at 4:35AM to sleep in the front room chair, since I am pregnant and it is more comfortable for me. Within a couple of minutes, I felt the chair shaking with me in it! It startled me, and I thought, earthquake? Or something unexplained.......it lasted 30 seconds, I prayed, and it stopped. When my husband woke up, on his Blackberry it read "earthquake", and when my oldest daughter woke up she said her pet Cockatiel woke her up when it happed by wildly exiting his cage, repeatedly hissing, with his feathers all standing way up! --Vanessa Hernandez


I am at my mothers home in NW Indiana - Koontz Lake. I awoke and thought that someone was jumping on my bed It kept moving up and down. The lamp next to me kept shaking quite a bit longer. I was upstairs and my mother was downstairs. She heard the house tremble but didn't feel the shaking. --Kathy Leipert


I live in Oak Park on the 4th floor of a 100 year old building. It has been settling and the floors are all very uneven, so from time to time I hear and feel something move. BUT, today just sometime after 4:00 a.m. or so, I woke up to the loudest noise (like a huge train or something). My bed and my body were vibrating. I was sleeping so hard when I woke that I didn't do anything but wonder if the building was going to be falling soon. It seemed to last quite a while -- maybe longer because of the building problems. I never got out of bed to check anything. Just went back to sleep and thought about moving to another apartment, but it was really significant. --Louise


I live in La Crosse, WI we felt it in our area too. My sister from Kansas City sent me this, this morning. I was finally in a deep sleep, when an earthquake woke me up at 4:40. The whole bed and house was shaking it seemed like for a minute. I knew it was an earthquake, because it was so steady. Needless to say, I was wide awake again, and shaking myself after experiencing it. I turned CNN on. It took about 20 minutes before the breaking news came on of the 5.2 earthquake in Southern Illinois, 127 miles east of St. Louis. It occurred near the New Madrid Fault that they always talk about. They felt it in Michigan, Georgia, and Alabama too. (Supposedly, during the last major earthquake along the fault years ago, it caused the Mississippi River to reverse direction for a brief period.)That was a new experience for me. --Virginia


We lived on Guam for 12 years, and had many many earthquakes; 1 especially huge one - 8.1! So I believe I am sensitive to "the feel". It woke me up and I was pretty sure that's what I felt, but also pretty surprised. I had to remind myself that I live in Chicago, not the South Pacific! --Louise Allen


I was asleep. A loud rattling woke me up, & I noticed it was the TV stand & my bed that was trembling. I couldn't figure out what was happening...so I just began to pray!...after I kicked my significant other to wake up & check out what was happening!! --Melissa Perez


I live in Huntington, WV and felt the earthquaket this morning here. One of our local TV stativons, WSAZ Channel 3, had reports of receiving a lot of calls from other residence in Huntington about the shaking or vibrating going on. My dog Zoey was barking like crazy and was scratching at the door to get out. Animals know these things. --Patty


It woke me up, I was in bed. I heard the rumble first and then the bed started swaying, like someone was shaking the mattress back and forth, lasted for about 30 seconds or so, by the time I got up it was done. scary --Debi


We live in a 4 story townhome along the river in downtown Chicago. My husband and I were awakened at 4:40a.m. by a rolling, vibrating sensation in the house. Our blinds and windows were rattling and the house was creaking. Some items on our dresser and in our children's room were knocked down. This lasted perhaps 10 - 15 seconds. --Cherie Corbisiero


We live in a 4 story townhome along the river in downtown Chicago. My husband and I were awakened at 4:40a.m. by a rolling, vibrating sensation in the house. Our blinds and windows were rattling and the house was creaking. Some items on our dresser and in our children's room were knocked down. This lasted perhaps 10 - 15 seconds. --


I was sitting in my recliner drinking a cup of coffee with my cat in my lap when it rocked side-to-side at least twice...dumping the coffee on my lap and the cat to the floor! I'm in northern Indiana in Kosciusko county. --Lynn Ellen Estep


10th Floor Hamilton Hall, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois I woke up several times overnight, one being 4:36 am CDT. I woke up and immediately, I felt shaking which almost felt like I was vibrating. It felt similar to when a person puts his or her foot on your chair and sharts shaking [his or her] foot. The whole chair starts to lightly shake and vibrate. My bed felt the same. I turned over to see if my roommate caused the shaking by moving around in the dorm room or accidently bumping into my bed. He was sleeping the whole time. I turned back over and felt the shaking again but less intense. My mind was too groggy to consider the shaking was an earthquake. I assumed my body was shaking which caused my whole bed to shake. I soon fell asleep again. --James Tomkins


We live in Bartlett right next to a creek. I was woken up by the bed shaking and an extremely loud hum noise...like a chopper sitting the on the roof. The noise lasted quite some time then echoed off down the creek. Not many comments I've read mention noise. I wonder if the exposed bedrock of the creek amplifies the vibration sound of the earthquake? --TJ


I was @ home sleeping in Portage Indiana. When I finally got up and moving we discovered that the quake had shook 2 of the hoses for the washing machine loose. So we had a small leak in our laundry room. --Kathryn Owens


I am located in Decatur IL. I was up at 4:30 feeding my 7 month old daughter. I put her back to bed and got back the my bed to try to salvage what little time I had left. at about 4:43 my Husband and I propped up in bed and our bed was shaking and out closet door was open. I was very worried. I knew that we were due to have storms and I was thinking the worst. Not in my wildest dream would I have thought an earth quake. When it was over my husband and I lay in bed and then I remembered that a few years ago there was an earthquake in Cincinnati and I bet that is what it was. Ha I was right. --Ashley


I was asleep in my bed in Glen Ellyn; all of the drawer pulls on the furniture in the bedroom started to rattle, and the bed shook. As we're near the train tracks, I thought it was a freight train. But I realized that a train has never caused that much shaking in the house, and that's when the word earthquake popped into my head. Then it was over and I went back to sleep. --Todd Buckton

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