Triangle wakes up to confirmed 5.1 magnitude earthquake with ripples felt across NC
The U.S. Geological Survey confirmed a 5.1 magnitude earthquake Sunday morning, with an epicenter in Sparta, NC., and felt throughout the Raleigh region, Charlotte and other states including South Carolina.
Sunday’s earthquake is the largest in North Carolina since 1916, when a 5.2 magnitude quake hit Skyland in Buncombe County.
The earthquake happened at 8:07 a.m. on the border of North Carolina and Virginia near the town of Sparta, said Randy Baldwin, a geophysicist with the National Earthquake Information Center in Colorado.
“This earthquake was a magnitude of 5.1 on a 10-point scale,” Baldwin told The News & Observer Sunday. “The information center received more than 6,000 reports of the earthquake in a 200-mile radius that touches seven states.”
By 2 p.m. the number of earthquake reports climbed to 90,000 and were spread over a broader section of the Southeast, according to the USGS.
Those closest to the epicenter reported strong to very strong shaking, while others further away reported weak to light shaking.
Callie Carson was making biscuits and eggs in a 27-foot camper on her farm in the Piney Creek community, which is just west of Sparta in Alleghany County.
The farm is about five miles from the earthquake’s epicenter.
Carson was telling her 2-year-old son not to drink the jam as the entire camper started to rumble, she said.
Carson, 37, a field representative for the N.C. Farm Bureau Federation, lives in Taylorsville, but her husband and two children often spend weekends on their 180-acre farm.
The movement felt like experiencing choppy waves while riding in a small boat versus what she expected, which had been more like someone shaking up a box.“It was kind of unnerving,” she said.
At first she thought the barn that they camp beside was falling in, she said.
Then she thought it must be a dump truck driving up their gravel road, she said. Next, she thought the camper was rolling down a hill.
Her husband, who was still in bed, asked if the boys were jumping in the camper. Then he ran outside and the couple realized the shaking was occurring on solid ground.
“My husband and I looked at each other and said, ‘Was that an earthquake?’” she said.
“There is no way there was an earthquake up here. That’s just not logical,” she said. “2020 has defied all innate logic, so why not an earthquake. Why not.”
The earthquake, which lasted about 10 seconds or so, rattled the dishes Carson set out and opened one cabinet, but they haven’t found any damage after checking cows and fences.
Later in the day, Carson said they were concerned the earthquake caused some cracks on parts of a bridge that serves as the main access to their farm.
Carson spoke to her two brothers and mom, who live in Ashe County. They felt the earthquake, but none reported damage, Carson said.
Carson’s sister, Megan Lyon, 36, lives in the community of Ennice which is east of Sparta and about 10 miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake.
The earthquake woke Lyon up, and she said she thought her 11-year-old son was shaking the bed until he came running into the bedroom. Then she realized it was likely an earthquake, as some had reported the day before.
Lyon said it felt like she was standing right next to a train track as the train rattles by on the tracks.
“We found a few things had fallen off some shelves,” Lyon said. “That was all we had.”
Sparta Town Manager Ryan Wilmoth said county and city officials declared a state of emergency around 3 p.m. Sunday.
The reports of damage, which are spread throughout Alleghany County, have included residential structural damage, chimneys collapsing and a town water main break.
There have been reports of “very minor injuries,” he said. “We are still evaluating, and that is going to be a couple days process,” he said.
The Food Lion in Sparta experienced some damage, wrote spokesperson Kelly Powell in an email.
The company is working with its landlord to assess the damage, she wrote.
“We are currently assessing the damage to determine when we can safely open to serve our neighbors in the Sparta community,” Powell wrote.
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