5.6 magnitude quake shakes up Wichita and Kansas

Editor’s note: For the latest update, see Kansans report feeling 5.6 magnitude quake

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An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.6 rattled homes and jarred awake Wichitans and people across a wide swath of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas on Saturday morning.

The quake lasted for several moments and shook buildings in downtown Wichita. The National Weather Service reported that it was felt in Omaha. Sedgwick County emergency dispatchers received 66 calls from people dialing 911.

The Eagle received a number of messages from readers using social media such as Facebook.

“I heard a deep, unnatural rumble, like a large truck going by,” said Jennifer Fry, a college adviser and retired teacher in Wichita.

“It sounded like rain hitting the house,” said Sherry Chapman, a teacher at Wichita State University, who lives south of Wichita. “It was the sound of all our dishes rattling in the china cupboard in the dining room, I think.”

“People were shook up,” a Sedgwick County emergency dispatcher said. “Some of them thought maybe the noise was someone breaking in.

“We just ask if anyone is injured or if there is structural damage, and we tell them to call back if they find any,” the dispatcher said.

The United States Geological Survey said the 5.6 earthquake happened at 7:02 a.m. Saturday in north-central Oklahoma. It also tweeted that aftershocks may occur. That ties for Oklahoma’s strongest earthquake on record, according to the Associated Press, the first coming in November 2011.

“Felt it on the fourth floor of St. Francis hospital,” said Susan Howell, a Wichitan who was visiting a patient there. “Bed shook like a vibrator had been turned on, but the IV bags were swaying, too. Whew.”

Sheri Talbot lives in southwest Wichita: “I was outside, and it felt like someone was shaking my chair,” she said. “Then all my fence decorations started rattling. It felt like it lasted two minutes.”

Some people slept through it.

“Woke up my 4th grader, who announced that it made her feel ‘dizzy,’” said Marc Bennett, Sedgwick County district attorney. On the other hand, Bennett said, “The 8th grader could sleep through a John Phillips Souza (sic) brass band in her room.”

Besides those in the Wichita area, people in Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri; Fayetteville, Arkansas; Des Moines, Iowa; and Norman, Oklahoma, all reported feeling the earthquake and hearing parts of their house rattle, hundreds of miles from the epicenter.

“We’re visiting friends in Fort Smith, Arkansas and felt it here,” said Mike Hill, a retired Sedgwick County sheriff.

“I ran out into the hall and noticed light fixtures swaying,” said Colleen Fleischer, a former Wichitan living in Lincoln, Neb. “A neighbor rushed out into the hallway with her dog, and I told her we had an earthquake, and she said she was relieved because she thought she was having a stroke.”

She said Nebraskans were saying on social media that the seismic disturbance was the Husker Nation waking up. Nebraska University’s football team plays Fresno State on Saturday in Lincoln.

Debra Payne Hill drives a bus for HeadStart in Washington County, only a few miles south of the Nebraska border. “Our water pipes started rattling first, then our cats and animals outside were running around, then the house really started rocking and rolling,” she said. “This was about 0704 hours and lasted about one minute or so.”

Debi Kreutzman works at the Kansas Food Bank, but was staying in Oklahoma City on Saturday. “The ground was shaking here.”

Dallas TV station WFAA tweeted that the quake shook their studios, too. No major damage was immediately reported.

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin says that crews are checking bridges and structures for damage.

Fallin tweeted Saturday morning that the Oklahoma Department of Transportation is checking bridges in the Pawnee area. The quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of the town of about 2,200 people.

Fallin also tweeted that state officials want structural engineers to look at building safety. No major damage was immediately reported.

An increase in magnitude 3.0 or greater earthquakes in Oklahoma has been linked to underground disposal of waste water from oil and natural gas production. State regulators have asked producers to reduce wastewater disposal volumes in earthquake-prone regions of the state. Some parts of Oklahoma now match northern California for the nation’s most shake prone, and one Oklahoma region has a 1 in 8 chance of a damaging quake in 2016, with other parts closer to 1 in 20.

Saturday’s quake was centered about 9 miles northwest of Pawnee, Oklahoma. Earlier this week, the same spot, which is about 70 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, saw a magnitude 3.2 temblor.

“Everything in the house was rattling,” said David Welfelt. His home on the south edge of Newton rattled for at least 45 seconds. “The bookshelves in my wife’s office were banging the walls.”

The quake shook up pets as well as people.

“At first I thought it was the cat leaning up against (something) and scratching,” Welfelt said.

“My dog was sitting at my feet,” Fry said. “He suddenly jumped up and we looked at each other, then sprinted up the stairs as the house continued to shake and creak.”

“I thought it was my cat jumping on the bed,” said Karen Funcheon, who lives with her husband, Bob, in Bel Aire. “I looked around and did not see him. Then it really starting shaking the whole house; Bob heard the rafters creaking.”

If you felt it, you can report it here: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/data/dyfi/.

This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 7:19 AM with the headline "5.6 magnitude quake shakes up Wichita and Kansas."