Earthquakes east of the Mississippi River are felt far and wide, compared to West Coast earthquakes. The following occurred during the 1886 Charleston, SC quake:
• Maine: The captain of a schooner off the coast saw “black wall” rising on the water, a gigantic wave that lifted the ship to a fantastic height. The schooner was buried in a mountain of foam, its sails torn off and its mast snapped.
• North Carolina Mountains: Flames shot from caverns, leaving behind a cloud of smoke that smelled like burning coal. Massive rocks crashed down into the valley.
• Brooklyn, New York: A telephone operator thought he was having a heart attack when all the plugs on his switchboard popped out of their sockets.
• Terre Haute, Indiana: At a minstrel show the galleries swayed, and one man was thrown out of the balcony; he saved himself by clinging to a railing.
• Dubuque Iowa: The audience in the opera house stampeded, thinking the building was about to fall.
Whooda thunk?