Earthquake Illinois
Leslie was up in Toronto, I had just arrived home that evening from San Francisco. I had trouble sleeping with the jet lag and an empty house. But I did manage to nod off around 2am only to be roused by the shaking and the noise at 4:37.
This was not my first rumbler. In 1993 I was similarly jolted out of bed by a more violent quake. This one was only a dozen miles away did more bouncing than shaking. The ’93 quake condemned the main building of my high school and extended my spring break by a few days. I was too shocked to take in the entire experience of this event.
The Illinois quake had extensive aftershocks, one in particular stands out because I was in the office. My office is on the fifth floor of and old masonry building. It started at 10:14 and lasted what seemed like minutes.
During these quakes I was careful to pay attention to everything I could, the noise, the movement of the ground beneath my feet and of the rattling of the buildings.