Residents throughout La Grange, La Grange Park and Western Springs were
jolted at 1 p.m. today and authorities say it probably came from blasting at a quarry.

Initially, the USGS said it appeared to be an earthquake. But now geophysicists at the agency are saying it was likely the blasting.

La Grange resident Cindy Henning was trying to convince her 3-year-old son to take a nap when her house in the 900 block of 6th Avenue started to shake.
 
“I could feel the house shake and groan,” Henning said. “I grabbed my son
and ran out of the house.”
 
Once outside, Henning’s neighbors had also gathered, and begun speculating that blasting at Hanson Materials Service in McCook or a gas line explosion caused the rumble.
 
Worried about her daughter at Seventh Avenue School, Henning jumped in her car with her son — still wearing his Underoos from his nap — to see if she could find the house that she was sure had exploded and make sure everything was OK at the school.
 
“My first thought wasn’t an earthquake, that’s for sure,” Henning said,
adding that one of her neighbors was convinced an airplane had hit his
house.
 
Library workers and patrons on the top floor of the La Grange Park Library felt a “quick, large shake” and heard a loud noise, said Kate Zdenek, the adult services director.
 
“I’ve never felt anything like that,” Zdenek said, adding that no books fell from shelves and there was no damage. “We all came out of our offices to check on our patrons and each other.”

Alberto Bibian, an employee at Hanson Material Services in McCook, said the company was blasting about 1 p.m. at its quarry, but the workers said it took place in a part of the quarry farthest from any residential area.

Also, the magnitude of the blasts was not great enough to have have been felt in nearby towns.

Bibian said his company has received some calls about the earth shaking and planned to examine data from its blasts.

Julie Dutton, a USGS geophysicist, said it isn’t uncommon for the agency’s monitoring equipment to pick up activity from blasting.

The Village of La Grange posted a notice on its Web site asking residents that felt the tremor, or have identified damage as a result, to call the Lyons Township Quarry Complaint Line at 1-866-WE-HEAR-U.

Village officials said they would work with Vulcan Materials and Lehigh-Hanson quarries to mitigate the impact of the mining operation.

—Andrew Wang contributed to this report