Submitted by: Don Kennington
Ogden, Utah
December 1995

Location at time of earthquake: Ranch on Crow Creek in Caribou County, ID

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Feb. 2, 1994

G. Harvey Kennington's ranch is located about 15 miles west by southwest of Afton, Wyoming, and about 4 miles into Idaho on the Crow Creek in Caribou County, Idaho.
I was visiting my dad, Harv Kennington, who was 87 years old. He was living on his ranch alone and feeding about 150 head of cattle with a team and sleigh. My brother-in-law, Robert Beus, usually came up from Fairview, Wyoming, about 10 miles away, to help feed the cattle but he would go home at night.
Harv and I went to bed around 9:30; at 11:15 I was awakened by an earthquake. I had never been in one before, but it didn't take a genius to figure out what it was and it was pretty bad, 5.9.
I could hear things falling off the shelves all over the house. There was a loud noise like a jet plane flying over at a pretty low altitude, making a terrible sound. The shaking would slow down and the noise would fade, but it never stopped. Then, the noise would get louder, like a train getting closer and the house would shake more and more.
Finally, at 2:00 o'clock (I looked at my watch to be sure) the main one struck. Pictures were falling off the walls; books, dishes, drawers opening and falling. Everything that could fall fell. The refrigerator was out in the middle of the kitchen. It was minus 12 degrees outside, and it was pretty spooky inside. It lasted about a minute, I guess, and then it backed off some. It quit shaking so hard and the noise would quiet down some, but it never stopped. It sounded like a train, backing off across the canyon. The erratic shaking would slow down, then it would get louder and louder, the shaking would get worse and worse, like a stampede of cattle getting closer and closer and the ground shaking and vibrating harder and harder, then as the herd passed, the noise would fade some and the shaking would slow down.
I was trying to get dressed and get my boots on without cutting my feet on the broken glass that was everywhere.
Harv, my dad, came in to see if I was OK, and then went back to his bedroom. I pulled some quilts over me and tried to sleep, but the sound and the shaking were always there. It would back off some and just sit there and tremble and mumble for awhile, then, roaring like a dragon, it would come charging across the canyon like a cat playing with a mouse. It would sit across the canyon roaring and trembling for awhile, then it would come charging in again. This lasted until about 5:00 and it really made a mess of things.
We picked up and straightened things for hours. A bottle of vanilla had broken, so it smelled pretty good while we were cleaning, rehanging pictures, and putting furniture back in its place. There were shards of broken glass, broken fruit bottles in the basement, a cracked foundation, and 2 broken windows.
I have been is some pretty tight situations in my life. I have broken a lot of colts to ride, been bucked off sometimes; ridden in a lot of rodeos. I also boxed in the ring; Golden Gloves, AAU champion, boxed professionally, Intermountain welterweight champion. But if things got too bad you had the option of staying or quitting, but during an earthquake there is no place to run and no place to hide. I have never felt so helpless in my life.
I went downstairs and discovered that over half of the bottles of fruit had fallen and broken on the floor. Oh! It was a mess.
We were probably 3 miles south of the epicenter in quite an isolated area except one other ranch about a mile to the east.
Since then I have kept my boots close to the bed and some clothes or a robe close by, too, because it was 12 degrees below zero and there was broken glass everywhere.
The University of Utah had a lot of equipment in Dad's basement for several months and would come up and take readings every week or so. They were nice people.
A few things I might suggest.
1. There will be broken glass all over. Keep some warm heavy shoes or boots where you can reach them from where you are sleeping.
2. Keep clothes where you can reach them quickly.
3. If an earthquake strikes at night, you could roll out of bed and lay on the floor close by your bed. If you are trapped and can't get away from the side of your bed after the quake has passed, do you have something sharp enough to puncture your water bed for something to drink if you need to? If this situation should arise, I would suggest that you puncture the bed as high as possible so that you could conserve as much water as possible. If it is possible, you might keep a container of some kind under the edge of your bed to catch water in.
4. Keep a good flashlight charged and available. i.e. within reach.
5. If your food storage is in the basement and your house collapses, how are you going to get to it? It may be necessary to forego some of the fancy things, but if you are pinned down by the side of your bed with not water or food, I don't think pretty or fancy would matter much.

Submitted by: Katie Davis
student of Ms. Bonnie Nelson
Olympus Junior High School; Granite District
November 1996

Location at time of earthquake: Home in Salt Lake City, Utah

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I was up in the middle of the night feeding my newborn baby. I was just sitting in a chair in the bedroom, so it was very quiet and still. Everyone in the house was asleep as were most of the neighborhood. I felt a rumbling noise almost like thunder and then the glass shook slightly. Right after that I felt my whole chair roll like I was riding an ocean wave and then it was over. I immediately woke my husband who felt nothing because he was asleep. I felt very frightened and shaken. I turned on the radio because I wanted to hear what it was.

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