McHenry County Blog

It didn’t wake me up, but the Chicago Tribune online article caught my eye.

Here is the locational map the U.S. Geological Survey produced.

And here are the details posted:

The earthquake has a 2.4 magnitude.

The government seeks your assistance, if you felt the earthquake.

Report it here.

If you click on the link above you will see the map below where you can enter information:

The map you see if you wish to report feeling the earthquake.

If you want to see where people are reporting feeling the earthquake, click here.

A press release from Congressman Don Manzullo:

Rep. Manzullo to Hold Hearing Tuesday to Explore Japan’s Recovery from Tragic Earthquake/Tsunami

Japanese Ambassador Ichiro Fujisaki to speak at Asia-Pacific subcommittee hearing

Don Manzullo at a hearing.

(WASHINGTON) Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia & the Pacific, will hold a hearing Tuesday afternoon to examine Japan’s efforts to recover from the tragic earthquake and tsunami that devastated much of the country on March 11, 2011.

The hearing, entitled “The Future of Japan,” will begin at 2 p.m. ET Tuesday, May 24, in Room 2118 of the Rayburn House Office Building. Japan’s Ambassador to the United States, Ichiro Fujisaki, will brief the subcommittee on Japan’s recovery efforts to date. The hearing will also feature the program manager of the Fairfax County Urban Search and Rescue Team and one of the team’s brave rescue dogs who responded to the disaster to help find survivors.

“The good people of Japan have suffered so much as a result of the earthquake and tsunami,” Manzullo said. “The timing of this hearing is important to demonstrate Congress’ support for Japan, and to send a message that Japan is open for business.”

Additional hearing witnesses include:

• Randall Schriver, Partner at Armitage International.
• Michael J. Green, Ph.D., Senior Adviser and Japan Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
• L. Gordon Flake, Executive Director at the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Foundation.

Janis Schwebpke, 1991

That’s the punch line of the story I’ll remember most vividly about Janis Schwebke.

I met Janis when she must have just gotten out of high school in 1967. She was one of three Kerns’ daughters who worked at the McHenry County Treasurer’s Office processing tax bills after the regular employees went home. They were largely self-supervised with no complaints that the evening shift did not work diligently.

Janis was the baby of the three sisters. I think Marsha Latham was the oldest. Marsha must have passed her love of joking onto Janis. Sister Marilyn Phalin, I remember as the quietest.

Roger and Janis Schwebke at a Kiwanis event in the early 1990's.

When I ran for State Representative in 1972, Janis was there in the courthouse looking at the results showing me running first. I know that because I had a picture of her from the front page of the Woodstock Sentinel standing in the Old Courthouse. (Wish I could find it!)

We reconnected when she and her late husband Roger operating Westlane Bowling Alley on Route 14 near Route 176. Janis was probably convinced by Brian Cunat to join the new Crystal Lake Breakfast Kiwanis Club that was formed in the late 1980′s.

Janis Schwebke at a Kiwanis District Convention.

My wife, Michele, the first president, was fortunate to meet Janis, too. They got to know each other better when my wife was in a bowling league there after we got married.

Janis followed my wife as president of the Kiwanis Club.

To say that Janis’ and Roger’s loss of daughter Jill was devastating is a gross understatement. Vibrant young woman working at Crystal Lake’s Dollar Video. Here one day and gone the very next. Janis and I could relate to lost daughters.

Both Janis and Michele went to the International Kiwanis Convention in Los Angeles. They had a fun, hard day at Disney Land one day.

They were sleeping in the same bed and my wife woke up. She thought Janis was having a seizure, the bed was shaking so much.

As my wife was trying to wake her up, they both sat up and shouted to each other,
“Earthquke!” What a sight. Janis went right back to sleep. Michele stayed up and panicked.

The Breakfast Club folded and the noon club did, too. The later was a real shame because it was the first service club in Crystal Lake, predating Rotary by well over a decade.

Janis Schebke and Uncle Scrooge in Disneyland in 1991.

When Brian Cunat was rising in the ranks to International President of Kiwanis, he and Janis decided to re-start a club in Crystal Lake. Janis called me.

What could I say?

Without Kiwanis, I would have not met my wife of almost 20 years now.

We were out of town when Roger’s memorial service was held last summer and we’ll be gone for Jainis’, too.

But Janis is one whose memory is indelibly etched on the Skinners’ minds.

Janis died at age 62 on April 9, 2010. We will cherish her memory as one of the liveliest and giving persons we knew.

A memorial gathering will be 9 AM until the memorial service at 10 AM Saturday, May 1, at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in McHenry.

Click to enlarge.

It was about 4 AM when I awoke and asked my wife,

“What’s that?”

Sleepily she said something like, “What do you mean?”

“It felt like the house jumped,” I replied and got up to see if it was a snowplow that had just passed by.

Lakewood’s main drag was quiet, but the driveway, lit by the chimney star that stays on until the snow disappears, was illuminated.

There was another bright light across the street from our tree house above the swimming pool.

All of a sudden it went out.

When my son awoke, he heard that we had had an earthquake.

I guess the light that went out must have been a motion sensitive spotlight.

Closer to the Pingree Grove epicenter, one family near the Huntley High School, about 14 miles from the epicenter of the 3.8 magnitude quake, said that his bed was vibrating across the floor.

Again, click to enlarge.

Another said,

“It was like thunder, but much more disturbing than thunder.”

You can find more information about the quake here in the DeKalb Register.

If you would like to give the US Geologic Service information about what you saw and felt, you can do so at this web page. There are over 14,000 responses so far.

One interesting tid-bit that the paper did not mention in the context I shall is that the earthquake was caused by global warming.

Paul Stoddard, an associate professor in department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences at Northern Illinois University, points out in the story that the quake was caused by

“glacial rebound.”

From Wikipedia page on "post-glacial rebound"

The thousand feet of ice is long gone, of course.

Global warming.

Not man made, of course.

10,000 years in the making.

Jeff Leonard ives in Haiti about 20-25 miles from the earthquake's epicenter. This picture was taken last year before his 12th birthday in December.

I wrote earlier of the Jeff Leonard, the Compassion International child we sponsor in Haiti.

A thank you letter for a supplementary donation came with the startling information that the Christian charitable organization “serves more than 65,000 children in Haiti.”

I don’t know about you, but I find that pretty amazing.

That takes a lot of feet on the ground.

One-third of those 65,000 children “live in the areas that were hardest hit.”

One of the aftershocks seems to have been near Jeff Leonard’s hometown, with is about as far from Port au Prince as Harvard is from Crystal Lake. My guess is the homes are all one-story, less dangerous that the multi-story homes in the country’s capital.

The letter says,

“Sadly, we anticipate there will be many deaths.

“We anticipated many of our church-based child development centers will have been destroyed (about 50 are thought to have been ‘seriously hit’).

Donations may be made at 800-336-7676 or here.

Compassion International staff members in Haiti.

Here’s up-to-date information on Compassion International’s efforts in Haiti.

We Skinners know because we sponsor a child about 25 miles east of the earthquake’s epicenter.

Jeff Leonard’s about my son’s age and lives with his grandmother and two other children in the family.

The grandmother sometimes sells things in the market.

His chores include gathering firewood, carrying water and helping in the kitchen.

I can’t tell from the photos we have received whether this now-12-year old is standing in front of his school or his home. Considering it seems to be built with concrete blocks, my guess is that it is his school.

Whatever the building, the concrete blocks might look like this today.

Jeff likes soccer and bicycling, is active in his church, is in choir and attends camp.

He’s a better correspondent that my family is.

No word from Compassion International about Jeff’s well-being yet, but the organization has indicated that money would be put to good use in its network of contacts in Haiti. The Haiti contribution page is here.

I was induced to sign up for a Compassion child by singer Bebo Norman at the First United Methodist Church of Crystal Lake. He offered a free CD to those who made the commitment to support a child under the program.

So, if you would like to contribute to a group with a Christian mission, this is one place to go.