By KEVIN NEVERS

Scores—or possibly hundreds—of Dunelanders were rudely awakened shortly before dawn today by an earthquake epicentered in Illinois but as of deadline the Chesteron Tribune had received no reports of injuries or damage.

The quake did appear to give a number of people the Magic Fingers experience of their lives. As a Tribune reporter said on arriving at work this morning, “My bed was like a rocking boat.

“The windows were rattling and the whole house was shaking,” another staffer said.

“My husband and I get up early in the morning,” a Tribune reader noted in an e-mail. “My bird went crazy in her cage right before it happened. I felt a rolling rumble and churning coming under the floor of my bedroom. Very strange feeling. It woke my son up from a sound sleep. That’s how strong the vibration was.”

Meanwhile, an employee of the Chesterton Police Department described her introduction to seismology this way: “It felt like someone was underneath by bed.”

Apparently Dunelanders felt the quake more or less depending on where they live. Residents on the west side of town, along 21st and 22nd streets, for instance, reported not feeling it at all or feeling only a slight tremor.

The CPD dispatcher did receive around 20 calls from residents about the quake; the Porter County 911 Dispatch Center, not quite that many.

But the quake appears to have left Duneland and the rest of Porter County unscathed. Phil Griffith, director of the Porter County Emergency Management Agency, told the Tribune that he’s received no reports of injuries or damage.

Chesterton Street Commissioner John Schnadenberg said the same thing. “We’ve received no reports of side effects from the earthquake.” And Chesterton Town Engineer Mark O’Dell said that the wastewater treatment plant was functioning just fine this morning.

On the other hand, NIPSCO spokesman Jim Fitzer did hear of a leak at a natural gas regulator station near Fort Wayne but he was unable to confirm whether the leak was related to the quake. Nor was he able to identify the cause of a brief flickering of current in the Downtown around 9 a.m., except to say that a 34,000-volt transmission circuit feeding the Chesterton substation had apparently locked out. But Fitzer did not immediately know why it had locked out.

The last time an earthquake was felt in Chesterton was early in the morning of June 28, 2004.

UPDATE:  Aftershocks took lace throughout the morning, again, originating in Illinois, but being experienced in Indiana.

Aftershocks, their times and magnitudes as of 1 p.m. were:

* 6:03 a.m. EDT 3 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth

* 6:15 a.m. EDT 4 miles S of Noble, IL 2.5 tremor located 6.2 mile depth

* 6:36 a.m. EDT 6 miles NNE of Bellmont, IL 2.4 tremor located 11.1 mile depth

* 6:46 a.m. EDT 7 miles NNE Bellmont, IL 2.2 tremor located 11.1 mile depth

* 7:55 a.m. EDT 6 miles NW of Mount Carmel, IL 2.6 tremor located 6.2 mile depth

* 11:14 a.m. EDT, 8 miles E from West Salem, IL. 4.5 tremor located 6.2 miles deep.

While the earthquake was felt in Indiana, the Indiana Department of Homeland Security's Emergency Operations Center has only received reports of very minor damage as of 1 p.m. For more information on the earthquake, visit the U.S.G.S. website:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsww/Quakes/us2008qza6.php

Posted 4/18/2008