For many local residents, March 1 brought something they never thought they would experience in Nebraska: An earthquake.
The 4.1 magnitude earthquake occurred south of Hastings, near Cowles, and was followed by two 2.6 magnitude aftershocks. The United States Geological Survey received reports from people who said they felt the quake as far away as Omaha and Manhattan, Kansas.
Matt Hastings, who lives south of Garland, said he and his wife were sitting in their living room talking when they felt the quake. They felt two little waves and heard the windows in their home rattle.
“If you’ve ever been on a floating dock on a lake and a boat passes by and the wave kind of ripples underneath the floating dock, that’s the sensation it felt like to me,” he said. “Then, there was another little one, and the windows rattled again.”
The Hastingses were initially confused as to what had happened.
“My first thought was that I was afraid there had been an exposition, or, it sounds weird, but I thought, ‘Gee, I don’t know if somebody's fuel tank exploded or was there a plane crash or something,”’ he said. “It was just so bizarre.”
He walked outside and looked for smoke or anything unusual. When he saw nothing, he told his wife that he thought it must have been an earthquake. About half an hour later, a news report confirmed his suspicions.
“It was a unique experience,” he said. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel an earthquake. If I had to experience it, I'm glad I did it here and not in a high-rise building.”
Marilyn Bechtel lives between Beaver Crossing and Cordova and was sitting in her living room when she felt the quake. Her husband was home, but he was in their shop and did not notice it.
“It was very strange,” she said. “It was a quiet day, and then all of a sudden, there was a kind of combination of a noise and a feeling. There was one shudder, not shaking, because it was just one, and quite a loud, deep noise.”
She wondered if a large truck had hit a bump in the road to cause the noise. She looked outside but saw nothing.
It had never crossed her mind that she would experience an earthquake in Nebraska. When she heard that is what had occurred, she was completely surprised but realized that it made sense.
Bechtel said she spoke to many others in the community who also felt the rumble.
“It didn’t rattle the dishes or knock anything over, or any of the kinds of things that you sometimes hear about with earthquakes, but it was enough that certainly people noticed that things shuddered,” she said.
