Midwest Shake

I woke up in the dark thinking there was an earthquake. Then, that seeming silly, I remembered that the weather guy had said that there would be a change and the wind would pick up, so that made sense in a sleep addled way–the wind is making the windows rattle. But–I was becoming interested and a bit more awake–that much wind would make the wind chime on the porch ring like a church bell. Instead, it was still. An explosion somewhere? I waited to hear sirens. There would have been sirens after any explosion big enough to leave the windows shaking half a minute after the fact.

It was an earthquake.  Around 4:30.  In Illinois. Something short of a couple hundred miles from here. They are saying on TV now that it was a 5.4. It seems to be out in farm land, some distance from most major cities. Vincennes Indiana is not too far from there.. There seems to be a little damage as far away as Louisville, the facade of a brick building.

It is part of the New Madrid system, but peripheral.