Outside the Beltway

Drudge links news that there was a 4.9 magnitude quake near Fort Payne in the northeast part of the state and famous primarily for being the home of the country music group Alabama. Freakish. I lived in and out of Alabama since 1980 and don’t recall any mention of an earthquake during that time.

Update (13:32): AP reports the quake lasted 45 minutes and was felt as far away as North Carolina.

Update 2 (13:54): PoliBlogger, who lives in Montgomery (south-central) didn’t feel a thing.

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Alabama, Drudge Report, earthquake, Music, North Carolina, PoliBlogger

5 responses to “ALABAMA EARTHQUAKE?!”

ray

April 29, 2003 at 3:50 pm

A 45 minute earthquake? Yikes. I live in earthquake capitol So Cal and I can tell you they may *feel* like 45 minutes but I really doubt that it lasted that long.

Quakes in Alabama? Next thing you know we’ll be having tornadoes in LA.
James Joyner

April 29, 2003 at 3:58 pm

Heh. And, yes, I would guess it was more like 4-5 minutes than 45–if that. The figure was just some woman in Gadsden–quite a ways away.
PoliBlogger

April 29, 2003 at 10:26 pm

Most likley no more than 45 seconds–and even that is a long one. I will say, having lived in SoCal and having experienced some fairly large quakes, when the ground shakes, 30 seconds can seem like 30 minutes.

The one when we were in our sixth floor apartment in Bogota, Colombia, was my all time favorite, however. All I could think of was “we are having an earthquake, and we are the the THIRD WORLD.”
John Lemon

April 29, 2003 at 11:38 pm

Just to let you know, I held back from making a very stereotypical comment about Alabama in this post. My restraint is unparalleled, at least for my recent past.
PoliBlogger

April 30, 2003 at 10:05 am

Let me guess: something about trailers?

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