Flashback: Earthquake shook Indianola on a Sunday 53 years ago
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Did you know that in June 1967, Indianola experienced the shock of a minor earthquake.
The incident was documented in The Enterprise-Tocsin by Marie Hemphill.
“At the First Methodist Church, the Rev. E. Allen Bailey was in the midst of the morning prayer when a low rumbling sound was heard and a tremor shook the building,” the article said. “In the sudden quiet the congregation seemed to be frozen in fear as the church appeared to totter. Fearing an exit panic, the pastor suggested the disturbance might be a sonic boom.”
"It didn't sound like that to me," said Mrs. Carl Bethea, "and I looked up at the ceiling, fully expecting to set- the roof crumbling."
"My organ bench moved, .and I braced myself for that second shock I've always heard follows the 'first," Mrs. N. T. Baggett recalled. "And like a flash I remembered hearing, the late Mr. W. R. French say that Indianola was built over an old volcano.”
Other churches, too, fell the impact. At the First Baptist Church Mrs. W. N. Gilt had just finished her organ music and bad started to her pew when the floor appeared to move under her feet.
"It was such a strange sensation I almost lost my balance," she said, "And the expression on the congregation's faces was something to see."
Mrs. Frank Baker said the grand piano before her actually rocked, and she couldn't imagine what was happening.
“For a short, breathless moment minor, everyday problems disappeared in the stark threat of disaster,” the article concluded.
