Central Oklahoma Earthquake Rattles Residents

The shaking from the earthquakes was not limited to just the Jones area. People in buildings miles away could feel it as well.

Friday, January 15th 2010, 4:59 pm

By: News 9


By Charles Bassett, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Emergency call centers and the NEWS 9 newsroom were getting flooded with calls Friday morning after two earthquakes hit just outside of Jones about 10 minutes apart.

The shaking from the earthquakes was not limited to just the Jones area. People in buildings miles away could feel it as well.

The first quake was the largest. It had a magnitude of 4.0. It could be felt in downtown Oklahoma City which is about 20 miles away from Jones. Office workers inside the Veterans Administration Hospital were just arriving for work when the building started to vibrate.

Tom Duchene was sitting at his desk on the ninth floor when the first quake hit.

"I felt a slight movement," said Duchene. "I thought maybe it was an air handling unit in the floor above me in the mechanical room that had maybe started or stopped and just kind of gauged some movement to the walls."

There was no damage to the building.

In southwest Oklahoma City at Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Sherrie Ferguson felt one of her walls began to vibrate.

"I have never felt any of Oklahoma's earthquakes before, so after the one happening in Haiti, it does kind of rattle your nerves a little bit," Ferguson said.

Tina Dowty in Midwest City was also rattled.

"I proceeded to run through here because I was trying to go outside," Dowty said.

Her quiet morning ended when the shaking threw out a kitchen drawer breaking it. She had to rush over to a box on the wall to keep the figurines from breaking. Nearly all of her pictures on the wall fell to the floor.

"I was scared to death, I was shocked, my heart was racing," said Dowty. "When something like this happens you really don't know what's going on. It just brings back memories of 1995 because it's exactly the way I felt when the Murrah Bombing happened."

Only minor property damaged has been reported so far. A local insurance agent said he's sold four polices since the earthquake happened. Earthquake coverage can be added to your homeowner's insurance.

This is at least the fourth earthquake reported in central Oklahoma since Sunday.

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