Shake, rattle and roll: Earthquake rattles some, not all

  • Published
  • By Debbie Aragon
  • AFCEE Public Affairs
LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Members of the Air Force Center for Engineering and the Environment at Port San Antonio's Bldg. 171 had a little help stirring their morning coffee Oct. 20 when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck the area.

The quake, which hit at 7:24 a.m., caused very little damage in Texas with only a few cracks in ceilings and cement patios closer to the epicenter near rural Fashing, about 47 miles south east of San Antonio.

"I felt it," said Anthony Jasek. "I noticed I was rocking from side-to-side in my chair and my first thought was earthquake, but then I thought, no way. I had a cold the day before so I assumed it had affected my equilibrium and I imagined the rocking."

Teresa Gonzales was home with a sick daughter that day and had left her house briefly to drop her granddaughter off at school.

"When I got home, my daughter asked if my granddaughter had been jumping up and down in the living room before we left," Gonzales said. "I told her no and wondered why she asked."

Gonzales' daughter then told her the news reported an earthquake.

Sam Klein was at home in the Beacon Hill neighborhood.

"I was sitting on my bed and I felt my bed shake," he said. "My first thought was that my roommate was jumping on his bed, so I yelled 'Hey!'"

Klein's roommate, who felt it as well, thought Klein was yelling at the dog. The dog, incidentally, happily slept through the event.

"I could feel the wood floor bend up and down ... it was a strange sensation, but it only lasted for a couple of seconds," he said. "There are several homes being remodeled on my block so I figured it was from the construction equipment or something heavy fell."

Klein said he forgot about the shaking until he got to work, heard people talking about it and had an "ah ha" moment.

Erica Becvar said she was glad she wasn't the only one who felt it.

"It was early in the morning and not many folks were here. My first thought was it's a quake," Becvar said. "I confirmed it when I spoke with Jim Wilde when he told me he thought for a brief moment he was dizzy but knew it was probably a quake since San Antonio lies on the Balcones Fault."

Many, however, like Harry Finke, Allen Richmond, Michael Cosgrove and Tammy Trippler, said they didn't feel a thing.

"I was traveling on I-10 just east of I-410," Finke said. "That section of road is in such bad shape that I wouldn't have felt an even stronger earthquake."

Even if he had felt Thursday's quake, Richmond said it wouldn't have been a big deal. "After going through the 1964 Great Alaska earthquake, I don't get excited about anything below a 5.0!"

According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the earthquake was the largest on record for the area, surpassing a magnitude 4.3 quake in 1993. The largest quake in Texas history was recorded on Aug. 16, 1931, and had a magnitude 5.8 with its epicenter near Valentine in far West Texas.