Skip to comments.
The Earth Moved - Somehow
The (Maine) Portland Press Herald ^
| 0823/03
| Betty Adams
Posted on 08/23/2003 3:28:51 PM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
AUGUSTA Don't blame earthquakes for the rattles and rolls that shook buildings and shook up people in the middle of the afternoon Friday.
The definitive word from the National Earthquake Information Center in Boulder, Colo., is that the three shakes and booms were not caused by earthquakes.
Bob Lent, district chief for the U.S. Geological Survey, said, "They did not detect anything above background that could indicate an earthquake."
Lent, whose office is on Whitten Road, said, "It sounded like a blast to me."
While the rumbling began about 2:45 p.m., more incidents were reported later in the evening.
Augusta Police said they received a number of calls, one for an elevator stuck at Hallowell City Hall. The elevator was empty at the time, but the malfunction was blamed on the rattling.
At 7:32 p.m., an alarm went off at the state Liquor and Lottery Building on Water Street in Hallowell. Hallowell police responded to both those calls.
An hour or so later, a resident on Pleasant Hill Road reported what sounded like blasting.
Kennebec County Sheriff's dispatchers referred the afternoon incidents to the county Emergency Management Agency.
Vincent Cerasuolo, director of the agency, said he had not located the origin of the shaking by Friday evening. He said he first determined there were no injuries or damage. "Peoples' nerves were kind of shattered," he said.
He added, "Let's not get excited until we find out what it is."
He speculated the noises could have been from blasting.
Lent also suggested the origin could be sonic booms from planes traveling faster than the speed of sound.
An unscientific geographic survey found that the boom and shake affected those in the State House and state office complex and reached as far north in Augusta as the Civic Center.
To the southeast, a woman in Chelsea called the Kennebec Sheriff's Office to ask about it, and said workers felt it in the Town Office.
The booms shook windows in homes on Riverside Drive in Augusta and entered e-mail conversations among children in Hayford Heights in Farmingdale.
On the east side of the Kennebec River, a teenager yelled at her younger brother. She told her mother she thought he was making the noises upstairs.
Lent, from the federal agency, said while Friday's rumbles weren't earthquakes, it is easy to mistake earthquakes for something else.
"The first time I heard an earthquake in Maine, I thought my boiler blew up. It was a loud explosion," he said. "It wasn't until a half-hour later I found out it was an earthquake."
Lent originally classified today's boom, at 2:45 p.m., as thunder.
Steve Palmer, from the state Department of Transportation's field office, said crews working on a new bridge across the Kennebec River were not blasting Friday afternoon.
Other crews working at buildings on the Augusta Mental Health Institute campus were blasting early Friday, but had stopped hours before the loud rumbles.
Legislators told each other it was construction.
TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Maine
KEYWORDS: earthquake; loud; maine; mystery; noise; shakeandboom
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-31 next last
Anyone got a guess?
To: NewHampshireDuo
Elvis guiding aliens to the site of a secret military mind-control program?
2
posted on
08/23/2003 3:34:38 PM PDT
by
thoughtomator
(Are we conservatives, or are we Republicans?)
To: NewHampshireDuo
Augusta is famous for its black bean soup.
3
posted on
08/23/2003 3:36:30 PM PDT
by
gitmo
(Press any key to continue ... NOT THAT KEY YOU FOOL!)
To: NewHampshireDuo
"Other crews working at buildings on the Augusta Mental Health Institute campus were blasting early Friday, but had stopped hours before the loud rumbles."Did they account for all the inventory, before they left?
4
posted on
08/23/2003 3:38:59 PM PDT
by
spunkets
To: NewHampshireDuo
;Other crews working at buildings on the Augusta Mental
;Health Institute campus were blasting early Friday, but
;had stopped hours before the loud rumbles.
I find the above somehow ironic. They sent an investigator out to the Mental hospital who asked some folks if they were blasting and they said they weren't.
How do you believe anyone at the mental hospital ;-)
5
posted on
08/23/2003 3:40:59 PM PDT
by
festus
To: NewHampshireDuo
6
posted on
08/23/2003 3:42:31 PM PDT
by
StriperSniper
(The Federal Register is printed on pulp from The Tree Of Liberty)
To: NewHampshireDuo
This is nothing more than one of the many cascading effects of the passage of Planet X. A slowing of the Earth's rotation leading up to the "Pole Shift". Or maybe not:-)
7
posted on
08/23/2003 3:43:30 PM PDT
by
Davea
Comment #8 Removed by Moderator
To: NewHampshireDuo
The Lizard people under Denver airport are preparing an assault.
May I suggest you begin collecting crickets and other bugs to use for bait.
To: NewHampshireDuo
It's August. Earth woke up to fluff her pillow.
10
posted on
08/23/2003 3:58:55 PM PDT
by
whereasandsoforth
(tagged for migratory purposes only)
To: whereasandsoforth
It's August. Earth woke up to fluff her pillow.Lovely
To: NewHampshireDuo
Another Bwitch Shrillery Antoinette de Fosterizer de Marx de Machiavelli de Sade
MEGAFART from holding it in so long on her book tour/campaign.
12
posted on
08/23/2003 4:13:07 PM PDT
by
Quix
(DEFEAT her unroyal lowness, her hideous heinous Bwitch Shrillery Antoinette de Fosterizer de MarxNOW)
To: NewHampshireDuo
Sonic boom. Russian invaders. Tinfoil bomb.
13
posted on
08/23/2003 4:24:17 PM PDT
by
Cold Heat
(Nothing in my home is French!)
To: NewHampshireDuo
Anyone got a guess?It's President Bush's fault. Everything bad is President Bush's fault.
14
posted on
08/23/2003 4:35:42 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Quix
LOL! I was going to say that it was caused by Her Thighness falling off of her broom, but yours is better.
15
posted on
08/23/2003 4:36:46 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Paul Atreides
Hillary's chartered jet, "Book Signer One" just had a hard landing....something to do with a little declared weight discrepancy.
16
posted on
08/23/2003 4:44:45 PM PDT
by
ErnBatavia
(40 miles inland, California becomes Flyover Country!)
To: NewHampshireDuo
This news is not particularly earthshaking.
17
posted on
08/23/2003 4:47:29 PM PDT
by
Consort
To: Consort
Oh, I don't know. I imagine a lot of doomsayers are quaking in their boots.
18
posted on
08/23/2003 4:48:07 PM PDT
by
Paul Atreides
(Bringing you quality, non-unnecessarily-excerpted threads since 2002)
To: Paul Atreides
"Someone" must love that southern food...either that or she's prepping to take Rita Cosby's job...I'd say that some of your genius is called for to do a little work on this pic.
19
posted on
08/23/2003 4:48:59 PM PDT
by
ErnBatavia
(40 miles inland, California becomes Flyover Country!)
To: gitmo
ROFL!
20
posted on
08/23/2003 4:50:20 PM PDT
by
arasina
(A place is what YOU make it.)
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-20, 21-31 next last
Disclaimer:
Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual
posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its
management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the
exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson