US Independence Day 2015 Omen 4.2 scale Earthquake

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4.2 magnitude earthquake felt in Eugene on Fourth of July






By Sherri Buri McDonald and Jeff Wright

The Register-Guard

12:00 a.m., July 5, 2015
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4.2 magnitude earthquake felt in Eugene on Fourth of July

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The biggest boom heard on the Fourth of July in these parts wasn’t necessarily fireworks.

Instead, many residents reported noises louder than a freight train when a 4.2 magnitude earthquake struck Saturday at 8:42 a.m., centered almost 12 miles east of Eugene near Walterville.

“I thought maybe someone ran into the building or something because it didn’t go on and on; it was more like a ka-boom!” said Pam Johnson, who was working at the Walterville Market meat counter when the quake struck.

“It was like someone picked up the store and dropped the building,” grocery cashier Daniel Fry said.

The market wasn’t damaged, manager Harinder Chhina said. Just a couple of wine bottles and mayonnaise jars jostled off of the shelf and fell to the floor, he said Saturday afternoon, as shoppers picked up ice, drinks and other essentials for their Independence Day celebrations.

Near the market, at the River Stop Restaurant & Sports Bar, waitress Bobbi Bond said, “We felt a big bang. We thought it was a big ol’ semi-truck hit the building.”

Several diners ducked under their tables and a couple of plates hit the floor in the kitchen, she said.

“That was kind of freaky,” Bond said. “It just shook us up a little bit.”

According to the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network, the earthquake struck at a depth of 6.1 miles. The epicenter was east of Thurston, west of Walterville and north of Camp Creek Road.

Classified by the U.S. Geological Survey as a “light” quake with little or no property damage, the shaking was felt through much of the Cascade Range, from north of the Santiam Highway to south of Highway 58, as well as in most every neighborhood in the Eugene-Springfield metropolitan area.

“Weak” shaking was reported in regions ranging from Corvallis to the north to Roseburg to the south, and even east of Bend and Redmond in Central Oregon.

Eugene Springfield Fire Department officials said fire crews conducted neighborhood tours to assess if there was any structural damage following the quake. Staff at both stations on Main Street in Springfield said Saturday afternoon they had not received any reports of quake-related damage or injuries.

Multiple people called the Lane County Emergency Management dispatch center located in downtown Eugene, relaying reports that included “an extremely loud, explosion-type sound,” as well as items falling off walls and shelves, and woodpiles shifting.

Dispatchers presumably weren’t surprised by the calls — as the quake also was felt at the dispatch center itself.

The first emergency response was to contact officials along the Oregon Coast, to confirm that no shaking was felt there, the county sheriff’s office said. Only then did officials shift their focus to inland locations.

The sheriff’s office said it conducted a number of checks on local businesses and found no major damage nor injuries reported.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported that its crews were doing routine inspections on the 13 Willamette Valley dams.

Similarly, Oregon Department of Transportation officials said they conducted visual inspections of bridges in the Eugene-Springfield area after the quake. There were no immediate reports of any damage to any roadways or bridges.

“While it is highly unlikely a quake of this magnitude would damage a bridge structure, ODOT is taking the precautionary step to provide certainty to the traveling public,” spokesman Rick Little said in a statement.

The state’s bridges are typically inspected every one to two years.

At 4.2 on the Moment Magnitude scale, the quake was the largest of at least 12 reported Saturday in the United States, according to the Geological Survey. Smaller quakes were reported in Oklahoma, Utah, California and Alaska.

The quake was the second in the area in as many weeks — a 2.1 magnitude quake struck the region, with an epicenter about 2.5 miles southwest of Coburg, on June 24, according to the Geological Survey.

In north Eugene, Michele Northcutt said she felt that earlier quake on June 24.

On Saturday morning, she and her husband were reading the newspaper when they “heard a noise like a freight train. I had goosebumps on my back. I thought maybe some big truck was coming through the house. It was really loud.

“Then we looked at each other and said, ‘Oh, another earthquake,’” she said.

Northcutt said she and her husband experienced a 5.0 quake years ago when they lived in Vancouver, Wash. “This one felt like that,” she said. “I was surprised it was only a 4.2. It felt stronger than it evidently was.”

Many people had stories to tell of where they were when the shaking began.

Brayden Mathers, a Colorado resident who was visiting his dad in the McKenzie River Valley area, said the shaking startled him awake.

“I thought someone was shaking my bed,” he said. “I ran downstairs and asked my dad, ‘What was that?’”

Michel Mathers said he told his son it was an earthquake. The elder Mathers said he knew what it was because he had experienced the San Francisco earthquake of 1989.

Ashlee Stoneburner said she had just started up her car to head to work at The River Stop Restaurant & Sports Bar in Walterville when the car started shaking.

“I thought my engine had exploded,” she said. “My car is 31 years old, so it’s going to happen sometime.”

Daniel Collins said he was all alone in the auditorium at First Baptist Church off Coburg Road in north Eugene.

“As I was praying, I suddenly started feeling vibrations and hearing noises,” he said in an email. “All of the glass on the windows at both sides of the room started to rattle.”

A member of the church’s facilities team, Collins said he did a quick inspection and found no obvious damage.

“We felt it pretty good here in Thurston,” said Kay Ashworth Martin in a Facebook post. “Shook the furniture, and the blinds were shaking. No damage except to my nerves.”

Joanne Selby of north Eugene said her carport and the top of her house were shaking. “It only lasted a few seconds but I thought it was thunder or lightning...or maybe my air conditioner was blowing up.”

Kate Noah said in a post that her husband, who has lived in the Eugene/Springfield area his whole life, went to save the rattling pitchers on the refrigerator.

“Having been though a few earthquakes in California, I went for the open front door. Next time he’ll head out with me,” Noah vowed.

Others displayed a sense of humor about the relatively modest quake. Several people posted an image on Facebook with the words: “2015 Springfield Earthquake. We will rebuild.” It shows a single plastic lawn chair, out of four chairs around a table, having tipped over onto the grass.

Follow Sherri on Twitter @sburimcdonald. Email sherri@registerguard.com. Follow Jeff on Twitter @jeff_s_wright. Email jeff.wright@registerguard.com.


Earthquake location northwest of Walterville


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