4.4 magnitude quake hits county

By Samantha Huseas

The largest earthquake to strike Faulkner County in about 20 years hit early Friday morning in about the same place the last one shook the earth. It was felt by several people, although no one reported any damage.

"The epicenter was about the same as in '82 when we had a beginning earthquake followed by about 30,000 more the next two years," said Dan Cicirello, mitigation division manager for the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management. The center was 15.5 miles northeast of Conway, near Enola and Naylor.

Cicirello's division is responsible for planning and preparing for a quake along the New Madrid fault in the northeast part of the state.

Friday's quake, a magnitude 4.4, struck about 1:42 a.m. and was not caused by the fault line.

"It was caused by an intrusion," Cicirello said. "Meaning something is trying to come up, either steam or magma, which will probably make it out in a million years or so."

The quake was felt throughout Faulkner County, even as far south as Mayflower. There were also reports that Arkansas State Police troopers at the Governor's Mansion in Little Rock felt the tremors.

The quake was not, however, strong enough to wake those who were sleeping at the time unless they were near the epicenter, such as Kyla Collins and her mother Rhonda Cox.

"I was alsleep on the couch," Mrs. Collins said. "And the couch just started jumping up and down. I thought I was dreaming at first."

Mrs. Collins said when the shaking started she jumped from the couch and her first instinct was to look for her infant son. As she woke she remembered the boy was in another room with her mother. The baby never stirred, she said.

"She came in yelling 'whatever it is, it's right there under the couch'," Mrs. Cox said of her daughter.

After realizing it wasn't a dream, Mrs. Cox thought an airplane may have hit the house. Her husband thought it was wind or a tornado. They had no damage to report.

"It seemed like it started at one end of the house and then it was like something was running across the house," she said.

Mrs. Cox and her daughter where at her house about 2.5 miles west of Enola. Her mother, Clara Wooley, lives about 2.5 miles east of Enola and she too felt the quake.

Mrs. Wooley said the quake interupted her sleep but doesn't think her home received any damage. Her neice did have a heavy dresser drawer come out of the dresser, she said.

The last large quake in the county hit in the Enola area in 1982 and was a 4.5. The 30,000 quakes that followed were very small, Cicirello said. There were reports of tremors in the same area in 1962 or 1963, he added.

"It seems like every 20 years or so it gets a little nervous," he said of the area.

Mrs. Wooley said she remembers the '82 quake and thinks Friday's was worse, even though it registered a little smaller.

"I think this one was longer or stronger," she said, adding it was a few seconds long.

Although neither ADEM or their Faulkner County division have received reports of damage, Cicirello said they have requested visual inspections as far north as the dams on Greer's Ferry Lake.

"I don't expect any problems but it doesn't hurt to look," he said.

As of Friday afternoon, no damage was reported in the county to local officials either.

Faulkner County Sheriff Marty Montgomery said his department "began to receive dozens of phone calls from citizens around the county reporting the shaking," about 1:45 a.m.

While he said there were no injuries or damage reported, the quake "certainly put a scare in most of the people who called."

Thursday morning, a smaller quake of magnitude 2.5 was centered just north of Mountain Home along the Arkansas-Missouri border. It also was not along the New Madrid Fault. It's not beleived the quakes are related.

(Staff writer Samantha Huseas can be reached by phone at 505-1253 or e-mail at sam@thecabin.net)