USA: 4.6 on richter scale earthquake in Montana

[Guest guest]

Dear friends,

 

In view of the weak placement of transit L4 Venus in H12 and ongoing

affliction of H4 and Ketu in H4 MEP by Rahu in H8 MEP, it is not

surprising that a fairly sizable earthquake has occurred in the USA.

 

Best wishes,

 

Thor

 

Earthquake hits near Sheridan, shakes up residents

By AMY BETH HANSON of the Associated Press

 

HELENA - Students at Sheridan Elementary School were under their

desks Tuesday morning, in some cases before teachers realized an

earthquake was shaking the area, the school secretary said.

 

" It was a hard jar, and really loud, " said secretary Jenny Burke. " It

was like somebody just shook the heck out of us for two seconds. "

 

The magnitude 4.6 quake, reported at 9:46 a.m., was centered about

nine miles northeast of Sheridan in the Tobacco Root Mountains. It

was felt in the Helena, Butte, Dillon and Hamilton areas and as far

away as Idaho, according to the U.S. Geological Survey Web site.

 

" Some facades of some buildings on Main Street were knocked off, "

said Frank Ford, Madison County's former emergency management

director. " A few of them, bricks were still hanging there. "

 

One Sheridan family was evacuated from a downtown apartment that was

damaged until it can be proven safe, and engineers were brought in to

examine the high school, Ford said.

 

" They're inspecting the school to see whether the cracks noted in the

walls were old cracks or new cracks as a result of this, " Ford said.

 

The elementary school, a separate building, was not damaged, and

NorthWestern Energy did not find any natural gas leaks, Burke said.

 

The children responded like they were taught during earthquake

drills, Burke said.

 

One teacher " said the students were under the table before he said a

word, " and before he really realized what was going on, she said.

 

Madison County Commissioner Jim Hart was on the third floor of the

courthouse when the earthquake hit.

 

" We all just kind of held onto the table for a second or two, and

then went, `We need to get out of here,' " Hart said.

 

Ford said the Ruby River Dam appeared to be fine and, during a flight

over irrigation dams in the Tobacco Root Mountains, " we didn't see

any evidence of damage. "

 

Ford said more in-depth engineering inspections will be done on dams

and buildings in the area.