Earthquake Rattles Oklahomans, Spares Oklahoma's Infrastructure

Natural disasters are keeping Oklahomans on their toes and putting our infrastructure to the test. This time, a one-two punch from earthquakes.

News On Six Reporter Emily Baucum shows us how our roads and bridges fared from the shake, rattle and roll.

It seems Mother Nature has a cruel sense of humor. Each time our road crews fix what she broke, Mother Nature throws another curveball. And we felt this one -- two major earthquakes in one day.

11/5/2011 Related Story: More Aftershocks Sunday, After Oklahoma's Largest Earthquake Saturday

11/5/2011 Related Story: 4.7 Magnitude Earthquake, Aftershocks Rumble Through Oklahoma

The rumble made brick walls crumble, toppled the turret of a building at St. Gregory University, and shook Oklahomans to the core.

"I was in my bed and the house was shaking," said Linda Pierce, a resident of Tulsa.

Just 30 seconds before going live, our production crew felt the quake in the control room, making for a shaky start to our late newscast.

"I was looking outdoors because I thought the road had separated," Pierce said.

It actually did on Highway 62 near Shawnee. Road crews patched it up and gave Oklahoma's highways and bridges the all-clear.

The Army Corps of Engineers also sent teams to inspect our dams.

"These are big structures so if anything happens to them; it's going to be visual. Or visible, I should say," said Ross Adkins with the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Corps didn't find any major cracks because dams are engineered to withstand these kinds of natural disasters.

"They're overbuilt. They're overbuilt on purpose just for this kind of event," Adkins said.

An event that rattled our nerves, but it spared our fragile infrastructure.