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  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 had gone into my youngest daughters room to settle her from a dream and after getting her back to sleep I laid next to her for a while. I can't say that I was sleeping when I felt the bed "jiggle" like someone was shaking the headboard. My first thought was I was just trying to fall back asleep but then I heard my dog down on the main floor walking across the wood floor and growling at the same time. I wasn't sure what to think. When I went back to my room I looked at the clock to see it was 4:45am and woke my husband and told him not to think I was crazy but I swear I felt a "tremor"? Not that I had ever experienced one to know what it felt like. He grunted and went back to sleep. I turned the news on at 6:00am to find my "tremors" were real. Weird! --Nancy Bomicino


I was at the doctors office in Naperville with my son. At about 10:15 we were sitting in the office waiting for the doctor when I said to my son that if felt like the building was moving. I was sitting up against a window when I heard what I thought was the wind blowing and ratteling the building then I felt the building moving. My 8yr old son thought that I was crazy and told me that he thought it was because I wasn't sitting in the chair he was. I said really look the cord form the the ear examinier is swaying.We both just kinda shruged our shoulder and said hummm strange. I found out later at work that I wasn't in fact crazy that it was an earth quake.
--Gina Worner


I was on the bottom bunk in my sorority house in Peoria and I woke up to our bed shaking and house creaking. At first I thought my roommate was thrashing around and shaking the bunk beds. But she's lived in California and Taiwan and knew it was an earthquake. --Alissa


I must have been witnessing the 2nd aftershock. I didn't feel it, but I was looking out my back patio and this rabbit was acting really strange. He didn't care we were right there up close watching him, he just didn't wanted to be OFF the grass. HE even jumped up on to the wall of our patio. I have never seen a rabbit do this. In the 80's, I was next to a pond in central illinois when a minor tremor struck , and all the fish started jumping out of the water at once...I failed to actually feel that tremor as well, but it was on the news. --Kelly Karthik


I didn't feel a thing here in southeastern MN, however at approx 04:40, my African Grey Parrot woke me up, flapping her wings, and moving all around her cage. She has never done that before, I got up and went to her cage (right out side my bedroom) and couldn't figure out what was wrong. But she calmed down, we went to bed and it wasn't until later I learned of the quake. I'm convinced she felt something, even though we did not.
--Lynai


I was sleeping and fanally woke up to sunnden shaky. --Alyssa


Are we having another one? Everyone in my office feeling it??? 1:19pm --Carla


In bed, only about 10 miles from the epicenter! It shook my husband and I awake and we ran for the kids room. It didn't even wake our 3 year old and 9 month old! My DS said, "No Mommy, trying to sleepy!" Cracked walls and busted, falling plaster downstairs in our 125 year old farmhouse. Pretty freaky! --Penny Day


I was just returning from the kitchen to the bedroom with my first cup of coffee of the day, sat down on the bed cross legged indian style, surfing from channels 2 to 5, when my bed started moving back and forth! Clicked to channel 5 as they have local news @ 4:30 AM and they reported absolutely NOTHING! At 5:00 I clicked on CBS and it was the first thing they reported. It felt kind of like The Exorcist mildly revisited. My cats were also acting a little goofy. Called my friend also in Hobart and she felt nothing. --D.G.S Hobart, IN


We live a little south of Atlanta, GA, and my daughter was awakened this morning somewhere around 5:25 EST due to subtle shaking of her bed.
--L. Solis


I live in Miller Beach, Indiana and I felt my bed shaking early this morning and woke up to find objects on my dresser rattling. I thought I was going crazy, and when I stood up I could feel the floor vibrating under my feet. I left my room and did not feel it anymore so I shrugged it off and went back to bed. After I woke up this morning my nephew asked if I felt the house shaking in the night, apparently he felt it too, so it was definitely not my imagination! Now I read about this earthquake, and am satisfied to know I wasn't crazy! I wonder why we felt it here, but others in the Northwest didn't? Maybe it has something to do with the dunes, or sitting on the lake? --J. Richard


I was in bed in my apartment in Lakeview when I awoke to my bed shaking and the sounds of my building creaking (I live in an old wooden coachhouse). Although I'd never experienced an earthquake before then, I knew right away that's what it was. Very weird! --Lea Nacca


I live in Pittsburgh. I was lying in bed at 5:47 when I felt the tremor. It lasted around 20 sec. Go Pens! --Jason H.


I'm a freelance journalist and was sitting awake in bed going over some notes when the bed swayed back and forth. I heard crackling in the cement of the buiding and immediately realized it was not from the neighbors above me, but rather a small earthquake. --Ira David Levy


I was awakened by my bed vibrating at what I am assuming was the 4:40am quake. It was dark outside and I was half asleep. I live on the Gold Coast a few blocks from the Hancock Building. My fist thought was, "Is this an earthquake?" and after I heard nothing else and my body stopped vibrating I went back to bed. Was very surprised to awake to the news of the quake. My parents live in St. Louis and felt it much worse. My friend in River North lives on the 22nd floor of a high rise and felt it as well. So strange!!! --Mary


I was in bed and my dog started flipping out and I was all "calm down boy" and then he started talking, so I started flipping out too. A talking dog. Wow. It shook our house quite a but, and I was like "oh man". --Brad


I felt the aftershock at 10:14am. Here I am just typing away on my computer at work and I feel my chair start to shake; I jump up to look out the window and see people looking up to the sky. It's a very strange feeling. --Kate Elenbaas


I was in bed watching TV, when I felt the whole house tremble. I live directly across the street from the train tracks and we usually experience some vibration, but this time I started to wonder if there was some problem with the foundation of my house. Then to hear of the quake explained it. --Lee Marshall


I was in my home office editing an article and listening to the WSJ market report. I noticed that birds were unusually active and vocal for this time of night. The house swayed as if a Very Large caravan of semis was rolling by. Then I realized it was a tremor - I remember the one in 1968. Couldn't find any immediate news reports. --Maggie Doyle, Skokie.


I'm wondering if I'm just senative to shifts in the electro-magnatic field because about 12 hours before, I felt seasick! Such a wave of nausea came over me that I figured I was getting a migrane. But then after hearing about the earthquake, and how some people experienced dizziness, I'm wondering if the two are related? --LN


I was watching tv sitting on my living room couch, just after 10am. this morning, when i felt it shake and the ceiling creaked. Felt like someone big and heavy was climbing the stairs right outside, up to my balcony, but no one was there. It was a little un-nerving, and i figured it must have been some sort of quake or aftershock of an explosion or something. --Charlotte Jump, Peoria, Illinois.


I am from Sparta,IL. I woke up this morning during the first wave..but we just got another one around 10:30am and it felt waaaay stronger than the one at 4:35am. I thought the walls were going to fall in. --Natasha B.


I was in bed at the time, and my pet ferrets have a cage less than 5 feet away from my bed. The were up drink water and once they stop drinking water I felt my bed shaking. I started thinking someone broke into my home and started shaking my bed but once I notice no one was there I knew it was a earthquake. My ferret just sat there the whole time looking around! --Carla Singeton


I did not feel the first one, I slept right through it. But I DID feel the second one around 10:15AM. Did anyone else feel that one? It was only a 4.6, so not as big as the first, but no one seems to be talking about it. Anyway, I was sitting at my desk and I felt the whole house shake. At first I thought it was a train because we live a block from a freight station in Steger, IL, but there was no train. I checked online at an Earthquake center and there was one reported near the same place as before at 10:14. Very interesting! --Christina Ragusin


I live in St. Louis and I was awake in bed praying. I think this is just the beginning of what God has planned for us if we don't change our ways. Very interesting to me that this happened while Pope Benedict was in the US. Coincidence???? Only God knows!! Americans need to get it together!!! God Bless America and all of us! --Barb Meister


I live in Chicago in the Roseland area and this morning I felt my apartment shaking and I said, Lord we are having a earthquake. I was not surprised, I experenced the North Ridged quake in California. --Candace Smith


I had just gone to bed around 4:30 and I was drifting off to sleep when I heard some loud noises outside. I live on a college campus, close to some train tracks, so I figured it was either students being noisy or a train rumbling by. It wasn't until I woke up this morning that I realized what it had been! I didn't feel anything that I can recall but I definitely remember hearing some rumbling noises. --Katie Boundy


I was in bed...something brought me to a state of semi-conciousness...ticking in the attic....as I looked up toward the ceiling, in the dark I thought it was an animal in the attic or maybe a very heavy freight train....If it was an animal it was not scratching..it was steady...tick...tick...tick... tick...then I felt everything move not really a shake which would have been back and forth..just one movement almost round feeling and north to south. A crash resounded in another room...t moment..then...silence...a hightened silence. All of my awareness was increased... listening for something anything else to tell me what it was. Was someone there?...what just happened? ....fist I waited and nothing, then I walked out of my room, slowly down the hall and into another room. On the floor was a framed 16 x 20 photo of the blue angels that had crashed to the floor from its perch on top of a cabinet. Next to it on the floor was the broken glass from the frame and a flashlight also fallen and it was on with the light shining at the photo. --Frank C.


I was asleep and awakened with a start to my bed shaking, the house creaking and the indoor shutters on the bedroom windows were rattling against the window. It seemed like it lasted for 15-20 seconds once I was awake. --David Billingham


I was at home, in bed in the Lakeview neighborhood. In my half-sleep state, I thought that I was back in Alaska, and that the 64 quake was staring over again. (I was stationed on Kodiak Island during the 64 quake. Then I realized that the bed was vibrating. By yhe time I was fully awake, the vibrating had stopped. --Herbert Scarpelli


I was sitting on the couch with my dog lying next to me. I felt this rumble and then the dog sat upright. The rumble/shaking continued and I thought it could be an earthquake. I know I felt one here in WHiting IN back in the early 90's. --Brenda


I was studying for finals in my apartment near Ball State University in Muncie, IN. I thought I heard strong wind and then felt a vibration for a few seconds. I thought it was me until I read other posts on this site. First, I thought my body was just shaking (I'm glad I wasn't the only one who thought this!). Then, I thought the people above me had a large load of clothes on the spin cycle that was shaking the washer or maybe it was just a train. I grabbed a broom and pounded on the ceiling at my neighbors. Oops! --Meredith



I was sitting in my office and my chair started to move back and forth. Th pillar by my desk was swaying and my coat was moving as well. I'll bet something big will happen in the next few days or weeks. Never felt anything like it. --Terry W.


We live in Nashville, TN and my 23 year old son woke around 4:40 because his bed was shaking and thought a storm had come. He thought about waking us up, as he first thought someone was walking around in our house, with all the movement. Cannot believe he felt it living here in Nashville! --Betty Warren


My mother was outside our backyard she said she heard our back porch cracking. We live close to Elmwood Park but in Chicago!!! --Beatriz Rivera


My wife and I felt the earlier earthquake this morning. But just after 10 this morning, I was watching TV with my two young girls and our TV and the dresser next to it begun to shake again. Not as bad as the earlier one though. I checked the USGS website and they are reporting two additional earthquakes in the same location that occurred right about 10:14am. We live all the way up in Grayslake Illinois. This is scary stuff... --Dan Warrensford


I manage a pysician office in near O'Hare, was sitting at my desk and felt like a rolling motion under my chair. I knew it was not a truck or patients walking through our halls. I looked out my door and sure enough, the pictures on the wall were shaking. Didn't feel the first one, but definitely the second. Then it was confirmed on your website that there was an aftershock. Exciting Friday in our town!! --Lorraine


At around 10:15 am I was sitting at my desk on the 27th floor of a Chicago high-rise apartment, when I felt a slight swaying of the building (from East to West). The tremor lasted about 1-2 seconds. --Gabor Kovacs


I was at my desk at work, when I felt a rumbling underneath my feet, so I switched position and still felt it-it lasted less then a minute, then when it was over I asked my co-workers if they had felt it too, but they all replied that I was crazy or drunk. --Susan Wentz


I live in South Elgin, IL. My daughter woke up at about 4:30, so I took her out to change her diaper and I heard what I thought was a strong wind gust, but then realized our TV stand was shaking. I was confused at first since I wasn't fully awake, but then realized that it was an earthquake. For once I didn't mind that she got me up so early! --Jennifer Evensen


I woke up to the sound of my headboard hitting the wall (guess I need to tighten that!) my bed was shaking. I thought my dog was leaning on my bed and scratching himself - so I told him to go back to sleep! --Nancy Nickelski


I'm in Connersville Indiana, at 5:30 this morning I was laying in bed and it felt like on of those vibrating beds....at 11:00 am I was sitting on my desk chair and it made me feel like i was about to fall....caused me to have anxieties.....both were very weird feelings for me. --Shelly


I live around O'Hare area and about 4:35 am the shaking of my closet doors and my bed woke me up. The shaking must have gone on for about 10 seconds. I freaked out because I had no idea what was going on but I figured that I must have been dreaming since I have dreams about falling from things and so I went back to sleep without even thinking that it might have been an earthquake. --Justyna

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