SKYWATCH SPECIAL REPORTFebruary 24, 2006
SKOWHEGAN, Maine --People in Somerset County are seeking answers after feeling earthquake-like tremors this week.
The Somerset County Communications Center got calls Thursday morning from at least a dozen residents who reported tremors in a 15-mile radius in Anson, Madison, Skowhegan and Norridgewock.
But state officials said there weren't any earthquakes that were documented by the New England Seismic Network, which tracks earthquake activity.
Somerset County Emergency Management Director Robert Higgins said he wants a second look. People in Solon last week reported hearing an unexplained loud explosion that shook homes, he said.
"I'd like them to re-look at what they may have. This is the second occurrence in less than a week of such magnitude," he said.
Norridgewock Town Manager John Doucette said Thursday's event sounded and felt like a Dumpster had fallen off a truck or a truck had hit the town office building, but that nothing could be found when employees went outside to see what happened.
More than a mile away, Jeffrey McGown said he felt the shaking in his office. But he, too, couldn't find the cause.
"It felt like somebody with a delivery type of vehicle had backed into our building," McGown said.
Six miles away in Anson, the boom and shaking were so strong that an off-duty dispatcher called the county's dispatch center. He thought maybe his chimney collapsed or his furnace exploded, but he couldn't determine the cause either.
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Reports continued to pour in Friday from residents who said they experienced what appeared to be earthquake tremors at about 10 a.m. Thursday morning. "The number and validity of reports received Thursday and Friday - in addition to similar reports last Friday in Solon - indicate Thursday's event was significant and not just a sonic boom."
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Booms Are BackJan 16, 2006
In early January, a huge boom actually shook houses and rattled windows along the Carolina coast. Local TV channel WECT and sound technician Alex Markowski, who teaches at the University of North Carolina recorded the boom on tape. Markowski picked up the low frequency sounds on his special recording equipment.
