TOLEDO, Ohio — A minor 2.6-magnitude earthquake happened just south of Walbridge Friday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Minor shaking could be felt.
According to the Lake Township Fire Department, there have been no reports of damage or injuries.
Lake Township Fire Chief Barrett Dorner said he felt his house shake.
"I first looked at the radar to if there was lightning in the area, if there was thunder that was really close to us," Dorner said. When that wasn't the case, Dorner said he soon learned a minor earthquake had happened in his jurisdiction.
Then, the department drove throughout the area to check in on residents and survey for any potential damage.
"We've made it a habit, even if there's a severe thunderstorm that moves through the middle of the night, to do what we call a windshield assessment ... which maybe wouldn't be noticeable by someone if it's dark out, if it's the middle of the night or if they didn't realize there had been an earthquake."
So, the department then notifies area residents through social media what happened, what they know and any other relevant information.
Dorner said his first stop was where the USGS reported the epicenter to be, where a building happened to be under construction, he said. But thankfully, the building showed no signs of damage, he said.
This is not the first time the northwest Ohio community has felt an earthquake in recent years. In 2019, a 4.0 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Lake Erie nearby Eastlake was registered on a Bowling Green State University seismograph.
Dorner, who has lived in northwest Ohio his whole life, remembers that earthquake. The risk of potential earthquakes is a discussion point for the Wood County Emergency Management Agency, Dorner said.
"Thankful that they were minor and thankful that it's more of a 'what was that?' than anything else," he said.
He also thanked the area community for not overloading 911 dispatchers with calls about the minor earthquake, saying that the Lake Township community reacted well to a mostly inconsequential event.
An Ohio Department of Transportation camera recorded shaking caused by the earthquake.
Walbridge is about eight miles south of Toledo.
The earthquake happened at a depth of 6.5 kilometers (four miles).
Times, locations and magnitudes of earthquakes are determined by seismometers, which record the vibrations caused by earthquakes.
The Richter Scale measures earthquakes on a scale of 1 to 9 or greater. The magnitude is the measurement of the size of the earthquake.
For more information about the earthquake, click here.