Buildings crumble and roads buckle as Oklahoma's 'biggest ever' earthquake hits

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BREAKING NEWS: Buildings crumble and roads buckle as Oklahoma's 'biggest ever'

earthquake hits the state

By Associated Press

Last updated at 6:22 AM on 6th November 2011

One of the biggest earthquake in Oklahoma history rocked the state last night as

a 5.6 magnitude tremor caused significant damage.

Chimneys collapsed through roofs of homes in Lincoln County - 50 miles from

Oklahoma City.

Damage to the Prague library included collapsed air conditioning ducts and a

collapsed wall.

Several roadways have buckled, including Highway 62 and other county roads,

according to KJRH radio.

The tremor - the biggest of four that shook the centre of the state - rattled a

college football stadium 50 miles away and sent shudders through buildings and

homes in distant communities and cities.

Emergency authorities had no immediate reports of injuries but one county's

sheriff's office said it was responding to numerous calls and checking for any

damages.

The quake could prove the most powerful on state record if the 5.6 reading

reported by the U.S. Geological Survey stands.

The seismic monitoring agency said the quake struck at 10:53 p.m. local time

Saturday (0353 GMT) and was centered about 44 mile east-northeast of Oklahoma

City. It had initially reported the temblor as a 5.2 magnitude quake.

It said the quake struck near the community of Sparks — in eastern Oklahoma

between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

The temblor shook the stadium at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater near

the end of the school's football game with Kansas State.

The quake was one of several to rattle the state Saturday, including a magnitude

4.7 earthquake that shook the same area early Saturday.

Michelann Ooten, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency

Management, said no injuries were reported to emergency management officials and

that there had been no reports of injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey reported from Golden, Colorado on its website that it

monitored a 5.6 magnitude quake at 10:53 p.m. local time Saturday and said it

was centered about 44 miles east-northeast of Oklahoma City. It had initially

reported the temblor as a 5.2 magnitude quake.

If the intensity of the Saturday night quake is confirmed, it would be the

state's strongest on record. USGS records show that a 5.5 magnitude earthquake

struck El Reno, just west of Oklahoma City, in 1952 and, before Oklahoma became

a state in 1907, a quake of similar magnitude 5.5 struck in northeastern Indian

Territory in 1882.

The Saturday night quake was felt as far away as Tennessee and Wisconsin,

according to reports received by the USGS.

Saturday's earlier temblor, which hit at 2:12 a.m., woke people and pets as it

shook an area that stretched from Texas to Missouri. Its epicenter was 6 miles

north of Prague in Lincoln County, in the rolling hills about 50 miles east of

Oklahoma City.

A 3.4 magnitude aftershock was reported at 2:27 a.m. from the same location, as

well as a 2.7 magnitude aftershock at 2:44 a.m.

'Oh, man. I've never felt anything like that in my life,' Prague City Police

Department dispatcher Claudie Morton told the Tulsa World. 'It was the scariest

thing. I had a police officer just come in and sit down and all the sudden the

walls started shaking and the windows were rattling. It felt like the roof was

going to come off the police department.'

Morton said the office was flooded with calls, but no one reported injuries or

major damage. She said residents told her that picture frames and mirrors fell

from walls and broke, drawers worked loose from dressers and objects tumbled out

of cabinets.

'We do have several damaged buildings downtown, but it's just cracks and things

like that,' Morton said. 'Nothing is destroyed or anything like that.'

Oklahoma Geological Survey researcher Austin Holland told Oklahoma City

television station KOTV that the earthquake and aftershocks occurred on a known

fault line.

Residents in Prague and Sparks felt an intense shaking, while farther away, the

quake was more of a dull rumble, he said.

'It shakes much more rapidly when you're closer to it,' he said. 'Because it's a

large earthquake, it's going to rumble for a while.'

Holland said his office received hundreds of emails from people who felt the

quake. The messages came from as far as Texas, Missouri and Arkansas, he said.

Tom of Oklahoma City told The Oklahoman that he slept through the

earthquake but was awakened by an aftershock.

'I know we've already had several phone calls from out of state relatives

wondering what happened,' said. 'I guess it's more interesting than

anything that was dangerous.'

Spicer of Sapulpa said the shaking woke her son and their dog.

'At first I thought an airplane had crashed nearby,' she told The Oklahoman.

'But now I believe it was an earthquake because the whole house just kept

vibrating with what sounded like distant thunder outside.'

In Muskogee, retired advertising and public relations executive Rhea said

he felt his home rocking for about 15 to 20 seconds.

'Oh man, it just about shook this old man out of his TV chair,' said Rhea, 70,

speaking with The Associated Press by telephone. He said nothing broke in his

home but the state was on edge after being rattled by lesser quakes during the

day.