COMMUNITY, OREGON NEWS

Strongest quake in years hits Oregon – just ahead of the state’s annual earthquake drill

The most significant earthquake to hit Oregon in recent years shook people awake and spooked animals early Friday but did no apparent damage, authorities say.

The 4.4 magnitude earthwork came at 5:52 a.m. Friday, Oct. 7, about 10 miles southeast of the rural community of Lacomb.

Maps released by the U.S. Geological Survey show the quake could be felt from Portland to Cottage and from the Cascade foothills to the coast – an area with about 1.8 million people.

“This was quite the wake-up call – literally – that we live in earthquake country here in Oregon,” said Andrew Phelps, director of the Oregon Department of Emergency Management. “Earthquakes and other disasters don’t wait for us to be ready. It’s up to us to do our part to be prepared when the ground shakes. This one wasn’t so bad but the next one might be.”

The quake was felt with varying intensity throughout Salem – and not at all by some.

“We live across High Street from Boone’s Treasury and were surprised to hear there had been an earthquake,” wrote Rose Leonardi. “A friend in Silverton said her cat started screeching around the time of the quake but she felt nothing.”

Sue Fleischmann of northeast Salem said the quake “woke me from a deep sleep like something hit the foot of the bed really hard and shook it.”

Susan White lives along the Willamette River in downtown Salem and reported that “I was wakened just before 6 a.m. to what felt like someone shaking my bed really hard. I’ve never experienced an earthquake before so didn’t think anything except surprise, a little fear, and annoyance at the time so went back to sleep, kinda, until 7 like normal.”

In south Salem, “Our dog began pacing about ten minutes before it struck, then began shaking after it happened,” said Deborah Chaney. “At first our house creaked, then it shook for a few seconds.  It was short lived, but definitely was an earthquake!”

Melanie Zermer said, “I was laying with my cat on my chest.  Then I heard and sensed something that I thought was my cat jumping off the shelf and onto my night stand.  But my cat was on my chest!  We were both surprised and Luna jumped off of me and onto the shelf to look out the window.”

Brent DeHart said that in Independence that the quake “shook windows. Dogs woke up my wife first so she was awake when it started.”

Lou Nelson said he lives in west Salem and didn’t feel the quake. He was he was asleep “when my daughter messaged me from Austin, Texas, to see if I had felt it.”

In Eugene, emergency management officials from around the state were gathered for the annual conference of the Oregon Emergency Management Association. The earthquake hit two hours before the final sessions of the conference.

The quake was just a bit below the threshold for triggering cell phone alerts for those who signed up for the government’s ShakeAlert. Those notices go out when a quake registers 4.5 magnitude and general alarms go out otherwise at a magnitude 5.0, according to state officials. People can sign up for ShakeAlert online HERE.

Salem city officials said the quake didn’t trigger calls to 911, and the Oregon Department of Emergency Management said late Friday it had no reports of damage. But U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planned to inspect highway bridges in Marion, Linn and Lane counties as a precaution.

Jana Pursley, a geophysicist with the Geological Survey, said the Lacomb quake was the result of a “reverse fault” ­where “one side fault is pushed over the other side of the fault.”

The epicenter was shallow at about eight miles deep.

“That’s a good size quake for that area,” Pursley said.

The Geological Survey hosts an online survey to allow people to report their experiences with the quake.

The most recent quake approaching that scale happened on July 4, 2015. That was a magnitude 4.1 about 10 miles east of Springfield. Geological Survey records show that since 2000, the strongest quakes in Oregon occurred off the coast in 2004 – a 4.9 magnitude offshore from Yachats in July and a 4.7 offshore from Newport a month later.

Friday’s quake comes about two weeks before the annual earthquake drill that involves schools, government agencies and businesses.

The Great Oregon ShakeOut is Thursday, Oct. 20, with a drill planned for 10:20 a.m. The state showed that as of Friday, 31,513 people – mostly students – were registered to participate in Marion County with another 7,249 registered in Polk County.

A website allows people to register and get training materials, accessible HERE.

Contact Editor Les Zaitz by email: [email protected].

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Les Zaitz is editor and CEO of Salem Reporter. He co-founded the news organization in 2018. He has been a journalist in Oregon for nearly 50 years in both daily and community newspapers and digital news services. He is nationally recognized for his commitment to local journalism. He also is editor and publisher of the Malheur Enterprise in Vale, Oregon.