DAUPHIN ISLAND, Alabama -- The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed that a magnitude 3.5 earthquake, centered just south of Fort Morgan, struck this evening.
The earthquake occurred about 5:15 p.m., according to the USGS website. The tremors — which lasted about 10 seconds — rattled residents, many of who had recently arrived home from work. The brief tremors shook cabinets, rattled televisions, even caused a car to roll forward on the Fort Morgan peninsula, residents said.
“My wife and I were sitting in our recliners and the house started shaking,” said Glenn Stevens, assistant chief of the Fort Morgan Volunteer Fire Department. “There has been a lot of beach cleanup going on, and we thought that one of the cranes had hit the house.”
According to the USGS website, the earthquake was mostly felt along the coastline, and the epicenter was in the Gulf of Mexico, 11 miles southwest of Gulf Shores and 17 miles east-southeast of Dauphin Island.
“One of my neighbors called to say that it actually moved his car and it bumped the back of his chair,” Stevens said. “They were sitting under the house in a plastic chair and the car rolled forward.”
Stevens said the neighbor wasn’t injured, and no other injuries or damage were reported.
Across Mobile Bay on Dauphin Island, residents started calling the Police Department shortly afterward, Chief George Goodwin said.
“The people with elevated houses felt it more than the people on the ground with slabs,” Goodwin said.
“It was like a really bad sonic boom, but with no noise,” Goodwin said, describing what he felt. “A lot of people called the Police Department asking what happened.”
Goodwin said he had been home long enough to change clothes, and had returned to the main level of the house when the shaking occurred.
“I don’t know what it was, but it shook the house pretty good,” Goodwin said.
Goodwin said that he doesn’t believe the tremors had any effect on the Katrina cut, the section of western of Dauphin Island that was opened following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Crews working in response to last year’s oil spill reconnected the two sections of the island in January.
Dauphin Island residents had become accustomed to sonic booms from Blue Angels practice runs, but today’s sensations were “a graduated buildup of rumbling, shaking and vibrations,” Mayor Jeff Collier said.
“It got your attention,” Collier said.
Earlier today, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake had struck near Greenbrier, Ark., about 40 miles north of Little Rock, according to the geological survey website.
The last earthquake felt in Alabama was Feb. 9, when a 2.2 magnitude earthquake struck near Gadsden, accoring to the website.
3.5
