The USGS reports that a 7:44p local time this evening, a strong 5.0 earthquake rocked the town of Cushing, OK. While it was originally reported to be a magnitude 5.3 quake prior to the USGS updating the rating, it was felt across a wide area.
Kimberly Clark (@kmbrly2clark) shared her photographs and story with us on Twitter. “Damage is done not just to the outside of the house, but also inside. We raised 3 kid’s in that house and lived there for 15 years,” she wrote. “We’ve been through quakes, but 4.3 was tops. It’s going to be quite an undertaking I have no doubt it couldn’t be worse.”
Clark shared photographs of her old home, showing a collapsed porch and other structural concerns such as cracks by door frames.
“The front porch is gone. It’s an older (1939) home that was well built –it ripped part of exterior off when porch came down,” she added.
The U.S. Geological Survey reported the earthquake struck at 8:44 p.m. EST, with an epicenter located one mile west of Cushing, 16 miles east-southeast of Stillwater, and 53 miles northeast of Oklahoma City, OK. The Cushing Fire Department told the station that no one was hospitalized due to injuries in the earthquake Tuesday night, but downtown Cushing sustained “significant damage.”
The quake was felt as far away as Kansas City, Missouri, and Little Rock, Arkansas. It was also felt in Iowa, Illinois and Texas.
Cushing, which has a population of about 7,900, bills itself as the “Pipeline Crossroads of the World.” It is home to a massive oil storage facility that’s touted as the world’s largest. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission said it and the Oklahoma Geological Survey were investigating for possible impacts from the quake. “The OCC’s Pipeline Safety Department has been in contact with pipeline operators in the Cushing oil storage terminal under state jurisdiction and there have been no immediate reports of any problems,” the commission’s spokesman, Matt Skinner, said in a statement. “The assessment of the infrastructure continues.”
Oklahoma has had thousands of earthquakes in recent years, with nearly all traced to the underground injection of wastewater left over from oil and gas production. Sunday’s quake was centered one mile west of Cushing – and about 25 miles south of where a magnitude 4.3 quake forced a shutdown of several wells last week. According to USGS data, there have been 19 earthquakes in Oklahoma in the past week. When particularly strong quakes hit, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission directs well operators to seize wastewater injections or reduce volume.
