Timpson Texas Living With Earthquakes

Folks in Timpson Texas has been living with the shakes for about a year...The small town of Timpson Texas is getting shook up. These shakes are earthquakes and the town has had 10 in the last year. So we sent KTBS 3's Keristen Holmes to the East Texas town to talk to the people and officials in the area about what's going on and what they think is causing it all.

Alley Koteras said, "The whole house shook and it looked like it was going up and down and there was a sonic boom at the same time." Garland Downing agreed, "Well, the ground started shaking and the house started shaking and making a little noise." His wife, Lois chimed in, "All of a sudden everything started shaking and I really didn't know what it was and I said what in the world was that?" Mr. Garland continued, "My wife, she didn't know what it was and i had to tell her. Of course, it was the first one i had ever been in but i knew it was an earthquake." "An earthquake in Texas?!" exclaimed Lois.

Since May of 2012, they've had several earthquakes, 10 to be exact and no one in the area has any idea what's going on or why. One thing they know for sure, is that the earthquakes keep coming. And now the whole town has to secure household items so that they wont break... But some damage can't be avoided in an earthquake. Koteras said, "One fellow has an outside chimney that costs 8 thousand dollars to repair after the first one, now that it's happened again, he's going to have to do it again." In the midst of trying to expect the unexpected... People in Timpson can't help but wonder, 'what's going on?' Downing mused,  "Everybody seems to think that it's the fracking and it may be. I don't feel that that's what it is... There's a possibility that that's what it is. The Bible says at the end of time, there will be earthquakes in diverse places." Koteras shared, "Personally, I think its the injection of the waste material into the water and not so much the fracking but that's not for me to say." And geologists have come to Timpson to help them figure it all out. But so far... They haven't gotten any clear answers. Geologist Kenneth Jones said, "Because they're so deep, they're generally averaging about 4 to 5 kilometers down so that makes it more tectonic." And as far as fracking is concerned. "The injections have been going on for some time, but this rash of earthquakes is kind of new, I would say that they're probably going to continue. But they're so intermittent, so randomized, i can't really put my finger on it," Jones finished.

In the meantime, Koteras is trying to get raise awareness to the issue with senators and other officials. "People here are getting scared now, naturally. There's not much you can do because you never know when it's going to happen. If there's something that's causing it, we need to put some regualtions on it by somebody."