Tell us about your earthquake experience

Slept through it.

Slept right through it. Just like all of the others that happened in So. IL when I was going to school there in the early 90s.

I woke up trying to figure out why my bed and house were shaking. The thought of an earthquake never occurred to me. I drank a glass of water and went back to bed.

I do recall that I purchased an earthquake rider for my house and I am checking to see exactly what it will cover in the event of the "big one".

I will be installing my wall clamps for my book shelves that I purchased at IKEA. I now know why they are a good idea.

I would be interested in reading in the SUN how our Building Code takes events like earthquakes into account and what kind of earthquake our public buildings, especially schools, hospital, police and fire departments can withstand.

-Is the planned 204 High School designed to withstand quakes?

-Do our schools require additional structural steel so they won't collapse in a level 7 quake?

-Will our parking decks withstand earthquakes?

-Do we need water and gas mains with auto shut offs like they have in California?

The New Madrid fault is one of the most violent when it goes, do we have a disaster plan for level 7 or 8 Richter Scale quakes in Naperville?

Hello,

I was up sitting on the couch playing on the internet when I felt the tremor. It was a very ligt weight tremor that lasted about 5 seconds.
Once I got and double checked outside to see if anything was wrong outside, I realized then that it must have been an earthquake soom ways away. Since I was already on the internet, I went to the US Geological website to see if there was any recent information. There wasn't so I log a record on the website to notify them that I had experience a tremor in the Naperville, IL area.

Thanks
Robert Jones

When the Loma Prieto quake occured (a 7.0), I was 100 miles away. We felt a little rolling for about 10 seconds. A 5.4 240 miles away? Gimme a break. If anyone in Naperville says their house shook, they have better take a good look at their foundation.

It didn't suprise me that I never noticed any shaking this morning because I usually don't wake up even during the loudest and most violent thunderstorms. There was one thing that didn't fit, however. At about the time of the quake my neighbor's dog started barking. I never heard a dog bark that early since I moved to Naperville (about 10 years ago). I remember thinking, "whats that dog barking at?". Well I'll never know but it might have been the quake.

I was awake reading on my computer at 4:37. Did not feel or hear a thing. Not even a pen rolled! Nothing rattled! Nothing moved!

I live in Naperville. Either Naperville avoided this earthquake, or maybe we build our homes a little better..not sure.

But I would have loved to experience something like you folks did...but nothing. I was awake and you could hear a pin drop at the time of the earthquake. But I could hear NO EARTHQUAKE!

Maybe, my house is built better than all of yours. I guess my house is now worth more than yours since an earthquake did not rattle it a bit. I won't be rushing to buy any earthquake insurance any time soon!

I hope you all feel better today. I suspect your homes are in bad shape if your couch and bed were moving and vibrating. Time to hire a contractor and get some reinforcement before the next EARTHQUAKE BRINGS YOUR HOUSE DOWN!

MINE PASSED THE TEST! YOURS ALL FAILED!

AGAIN I WAS AWAKE WITH NOT EVEN A TV OR RADIO ON AND I COULD HEAR A PIN DROP BUT NOT THIS DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE YOU GUYS ARE SENSATIONALIZING, DREAMING OR EXAGGERATING ABOUT!

No need for any Sun Reporter to call me! I have no news and sometimes no news is great news!

PS. I had written part of this post and sent it to the Tribune before realizing the Naperville Sun was blogging on the same topic.
So if part of it does not make sense, I hope you understand.

I think the earthquake caused a bowling ball to roll off a shelf and hit Blake on the head.

Sometimes our first-grader gets up in the middle of the night and gets in bed with my wife and I, unknown to us. If he needs to go to the bathroom in his sleep, his legs start to shake, causing the bed to shake.

This morning I remember waking up to shaking and thinking that my son must REALLY have to go since he typically doesn't shake that fast. I got up, turned the light on, and was surprised that he wasn't in bed with us.

My confusion wasn't explained until I saw the headlines this morning!

I had a dream that the good reverand from AMES asked GOD for a sign if the good folks in 204 had figured out the game that he and Dr. D had played on the District. Next thing I know I woke up to the earthquake. Very, very scary!

i was dreaming and in my dream i heard this loud voice say.... "Everythings rumbling, it's an earthquake" i immediately woke up and i could feel my bed shaking violently underneath me. i looked up and saw my dresser shaking back and forth with things falling off of it. i thought at first it was just really strong wind but i realized it had to be something else. the time was 4:44 am when i felt it. i went back to sleep after about 5 minutes. when i woke up this morning, i thought i was going physco. I thought maybe i was dreaming. But when i went downstairs i was listening to the radio and realized that there had actually been an earth quake. i couldn't believe how crazy it was but i'm glad i wasn't crazy.

We felt it at our house in north Naperville in the 430-440am time frame. We woke to the bed shaking and rattling of things in the bathroom. Very strange feeling! We turned on the radio and WBBM-AM mentioned they had gotten a number of calls. Sort of glad I woke up to feel it!

While the rest of us are discussing the coolness of actually feeling this natural phenomenon, I think Blake needs some anger management classes.

No doubt about it, I felt my bed moving and thought I was dreaming. There was no sound just a steady rolling as if someone was shaking my mattress slightly. I too am glad I woke it to experience it!

Blake,

What does not bend, breaks. If we ever get the big one you might experience a giant snapping sound.

Lets all hope it never happens; I have family that has gone through several big ones, it's and experience to be avoided.

I would still like to know how our public building will perform if we do get the big one?

Moderator Jim,

The USGS has some great maps and info that may be of interest to your readers, check it out.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/hazmaps/products_data/48_States/index.php

I didn't feel it, but when I read about it, it's sad but the first thing I thought of was the wackos on the blogs that would try and use this as their latest attempt to attack the District 204 new high school. I was right. 5 pages of fake crap on one of them by 10am this morning. (though quite a feeble attempt)

JWH

You seem to have a great deal of passion on this subject.

Are you a structural engineer?

There was an earthquake?

Moderator Jim to Jim: Precisely - I never felt a thing and I'm a pretty light sleeper. Maybe it wasn't that concentrated in the Naperville area.

I live on the top floor of an apartment building in Naperville, so my building was really shaking. I woke up about 4:30ish, and thought I was shivering since I left my windows open. Then it dawned on me that everything was shaking, not just my bed. It lasted for about 8-10 seconds. I pretty much knew it was an earthquake and starting googling for it 10 minutes after it happened. This is the second one that I've felt. The first earthquake was the one with the epicenter in Ottawa. That felt more like the ground was rolling. But, it's probably because I was on the first floor then.