Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Team coverageThe quake that struck this morning in Wells, Nev., was felt across the valley and beyond. We heard from people as far north as Idaho all the way down to Delta.
One of the most interesting things about what happened here is that while some people felt the quake-- others right next door didn't feel anything at all.
Our phones here at KSL this morning started ringing off the hook. People all over wanted to know what was going on and wanted to tell us what they had felt.
George Barnard was one of those. He was sitting in front of his computer in his 7th floor apartment when the quake struck. He says, "All of a sudden, my body just started moving back and forth very slow, about a second per cycle. It was just an odd feeling."
Barnard thought it was just not feeling well. "I got up and stood up and I was still doing it back and forth. So I went to check up on my wife, and it had woken her up. It was enough to wake her up out of a sound sleep, and me to sure feel it," Barnard says.
We got e-mails from others who experienced the same thing. One e-mail said, ‘I thought it was my husband shaking the bed to get me up." Another viewer told us, "We felt it in Lehi. The house moved from side to side, and the blinds were hitting the windows. Wow, never felt that before."
Here in the valley, guests at the Little America Hotel felt the quake and called the hotel's operator. LaRaine Fitch said, "Some said they shook almost out of bed, furniture moved, windows rumbled."
But at the very same hotel, there were some who didn't feel it. Spencer Riggs, a doorman at the Little America Hotel said, "A taxi driver came to me and said, ‘Did you feel the shaking? Did you feel the earthquake?' And I said no there wasn't an earthquake. He said, ‘Well look, even the chandelier is shaking.' I said, well that's kind of interesting. Walked inside, there were other people talking about it, like people from out of town, from California, told me I know it was one, we feel them all the time, and even the indoor chandeliers were shaking."
Clark Reeder, a bell captain, said, "I was standing at my desk. My manager came out and said, ‘Did you feel that.' I said, no I didn't feel anything, but looked up at the chandeliers, and they were rocking back and forth--all three of them here in the lobby."
One woman at the Hampton Inn said, "I was asleep, and then all of the sudden the bed started shaking, and I was thinking I was kind of on like one of those episodes of the Exorcist."
Some people who were working at the Capitol this morning thought all the shaking was construction but soon realized that wasn't the case. Emily Peterson said, "Everything just started to wobble a little bit. Some of the plants over in the corner started to shake, and I wasn't sure if someone was just pushing a cart down the hall, or if something was going on more than that."
Leah Blevins also works at the Capitol. "There wasn't really anything shaking. My computer swayed a little bit," Blevins said.
In Wendover, Utah, Tammy Wadsworth was ironing clothes when the quake hit. "I kept thinking, 'When is it going to quit?' A couple pictures fell off the walls," she said. "One of my grandkids ran outside. They didn't know what else to do. It scared them."
Most of the people we talked with said they felt the shaking around 7:15 a.m. and 7:20 a.m.
Some people said they felt movement in the 8 o'clock hour as well.
