Earthquake :: essays research papers

LEBANON, Oh. - A 7.0 earthquake shook millions awake early Saturday in the tri-state region and derailed an Amtrak train. The quake jolted residents out of their beds and shook buildings as far away as Pittsburgh. Over 90,000 people lost their power, and a highway bridge was cracked in downtown Cincinnati. This 2:46 A.M. earthquake was more than the ordinary and caused a little more than incidental damage. â€Å"Did you ever play a pinball machine and see the ball get stuck in there and go bam-bam-bam-bam? It just threw my body back and forth as I ran down the hallway,† Dick Dale said from his home. Four of the passengers on the Amtrak train suffered minor injuries. â€Å"I was sleeping. It felt like the train jumped off the track...and I fell out of bed,† said passenger Colleen Broome, who suffered a separated shoulder. The quake was centered 32 miles north of Cincinnati in a small town called Lebanon. After the main blow from the earthquake there were after- shocks that rolled through the region for hours. A 5.8 and a 5.3 were two of the dozen aftershocks recorded. Authorities in Cincinnati and in Columbus said that there were no serious damage or injuries reported. They received a few calls, but none of them were too serious. â€Å"It shook everything pretty good, but that was about it,† said Lt. Rich Paddock of the Warren County Sheriff’s Department. The effects of the earthquake were more serious near the epicenter located near Lebanon. John Fabian, a Lebanon visitor, did not know what it was. Fabian’s wife woke him in the middle of the morning and told him they had to get out of there. â€Å"The whole place was shaking like crazy,† Fabian said. Although the earthquake was powerful, it did not cause that much damage at all. The Hampton Inn in Mason, Oh., about 5 miles away from the epicenter just suffered a power outage and no sign of any type of damage. The owner of the motel later said that he got lucky no structural damage was done.