Tori Amos fans will get the reference...😏

Around 0810 this morning the whole house shook for a few seconds. At first I figured a VIR race hauler rig had passed by traveling a little too fast for this back road as you often feel vibration from those.

But sure enough it was an earthquake. A 5.1 magnitude centered near Sparta NC, well over 120 miles from here. I'm a National Weather Service storm spotter and when I called in my report they told me it was felt as far south as Charlotte , east as Raleigh, and north as Waynesboro VA. Strangely not in the Roanoke Valley where their office is located.

Strange days indeed. And a little unnerving on a quiet Sunday morning.

 

I was working in Richmond at a classified location when the 5.7 hit April 23, 2011. Not my first earthquake but was very interesting.

 

Way down in mid South Carolina and felt a little wobble. Looked at the clock to note the time in the event a doctor needed calling. It was almost 10 after 8. Thought I was having some sort of a medical episode at first. Then I saw the back door that was open swaying back and forth a little bit on its hinges. I told the wife there must've been a tremor somewhere. And sure enough...

 

I was at work that afternoon and in a big powerplant the first thing you think of is turbine vibration or a large pump is getting ready to let go. Think China Syndrome except in a fossil plant instead of a nuke. Then we got word of the quake and for us to take all four generators to full load and start the gas turbine because the nukes in Raleigh and Southport NC had been forced offline per NRC regulations.

This was a minor quake but you always think "this isn't supposed to happen here".

 

I think we had around a 2.1 in North Texas.