Rare Quake Jolts Kansas City, Damaging Medical Building
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KANSAS CITY, Kan. — A small but rare earthquake shook a 40-block span of this city Thursday, damaging a medical building with about 100 people inside. No injuries were reported.
The quake, which registered a magnitude of 3.0, was considered weak but uncommon for a Midwestern state like Kansas.
“It’s an unusual event but certainly nothing to be alarmed about,” said Don Steeples, a professor in the geology department at the University of Kansas.
John Minsch, a geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey, said he knew of just one other instance of an earthquake registered in the area. That quake registered 3.8 in 1931.
About 100 health care workers and patients were evacuated from the Indian Springs Medical Building after the quake hit about 9:20 a.m.
Don Denney, a city spokesman, said cracks were “spread out all over” the two-story building. A parking lot also was damaged near the building, where the pavement had buckled and dropped off about 8 feet.
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