NORTHERN MICHIGAN/SALEM, ILLINOIS -- In the 7&4 Storm Team Weather Center, we often deal with many weather related concerns that could impact our viewers such as winter storms, slick roads, severe weather impacts, etc... but it was different living in Northern Michigan and have viewer concerns about an earthquake, but that was what happened Friday morning.
We were already about 45 minutes into our morning show (7&4 News Today) recapping rain over the U.P. and looking ahead to the weekend forecast when colleagues of mine in the Grand Rapids/Lansing TV Markets mentioned in a weather chat software we utilize that their newsrooms were getting "swamped" with viewer concerns of shaking and something didn't seem right to our south.
FROM GRAND RAPIDS AT 5:46 AM... "this is a little weird, but we keep getting calls about feeling a weak earthquake. Any idea what this about???"
FROM GRAND RAPIDS AT 5:52 AM... "Our newsroom phones are ringing off the hook, too---"
FROM LANSING AT 6:03 AM... "Several calls to the newsroom about feeling a quake for 6-10 seconds"
It was not all that long after that the US Geological Society had an earthquake listed near Salem, Illinois as the cause. The quake itself was centered along the Indiana/Illinois state line north of Evansville and was classified as roughly a 5.2 on the seismic scale occuring at 5:37 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time after which the calls started across much of the Midwest. The quake was felt quite a bit in St. Louis/Indianapolis/Chicago, and as far away as 450 miles from the epicenter.
Locally here across Northern Michigan, I mentioned the quake on-air just a couple minutes after I received the information and we soon begin to receive calls/e-mails from our viewers who had felt the quake here. I want to point out how valuable our viewers are to share this information and we could then relay what our viewers experienced to the public and let them know.
FROM JERRY IN MANISTEE: " Thanks for saying there was an earthquake! The light fixture above our dinning table was swaying back and forth and I couldn't fiqure out what was going on...
I did not feel anything, but our dog Charlie was whimpering too!
I live downtown Manistee"
FROM DEL IN NORWALK: "Seen the shirts in my closet twitch at about 5:45 am this morning, thinking there was something there at first. Wasn't surprise to hear of the earth quake.
It was on the second floor which might have helped show the tremer. Norwalk, Mi.
FROM KATIE NEAR TRAVERSE CITY: "Dear Joe,
I was relieved to learn that I wasn't going crazy this morning when you reported the 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Indiana! I live in Holiday Hills in Traverse City and I felt the house shaking and heard things vibrating against the walls at 5:40am, because I was up with my 2 month old baby. My husband had already left for work when it happened and I was really doubting myself, until I heard the report. Thanks for the validation!"
Kim from Frankfort also called and mentioned that it felt like when the washing machine goes off it's axis.
In a nutshell, earthquakes in our region are pretty rare, and if they do happen, it's mainly because they are occuring quite far away from this region, and we feel the distant shaking. Locations centered around Memphis, Tennessee are centered along the New Madrid Fault Line, and there is also a fault located near the St. Lawrence Valley of Quebec, Canada which occasionally acts up. Still, it made for an interesting and unusual morning across much of Michigan and the Midwest. -Joe Charlevoix
