KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — On Saturday, a 4.1 magnitude earthquake jolted awake various parts of East Tennessee near the North Carolina border. 6 News got insight on the quake from the Tuckaleechee Caverns seismographs and spoke with a woman in Tellico Plains who felt the tremor.

Sally Teague has lived in Tellico Plains for 40 years, but says she’s never experienced anything like this. Saturday morning, she and her husband were sitting at their kitchen table when they heard loud rumble. Moments later the house began to shake, knocking food off their pantry shelves.

“I have my children, and I was like, we need to grab our children, but where do we go? We don’t plan for an earthquake. And so, we were like, do we go outside? Do we stay inside? Do we get the children? Do we get under the table? Like everything was going through your mind at once, and you don’t know what to do. So, it was very scary,” explained Teague.
And it wasn’t just her house feeling the effects. Across the street, her mother-in-law’s pool was making large waves. Teague also received calls from family and friends in nearby states who said they felt it too.
United States Geological Survey records show the earthquake struck about 12 miles southeast of Greenback, Tennessee, around 9:04 a.m., 16 miles below Earth’s surface.
“Well, they come about by tectonic shift in the plates. So, when the plates break loose, it starts to just grind through, and that’s how you get an earthquake. We do have really deep, ancient fault lines and we get, you know, some movement every once in a while. But that’s the first one that I’ve ever felt,” said Benjamin Vananda a manager who tends the seismic monitor for Tuckaleechee Cavern. That exact local monitoring equipment at Tuckaleechee Cavern picked up the activity.
For Teague it’s an experience she won’t forget.

“I mean, just the shaking, it really takes you back. You’re just living it out, and just kind of everything stops, and you’re just kind of in shock, and you’re just in the moment and just hanging on and hoping that it rides through fast,” said Teague
The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) tells 6 News it is not aware of any damage to East Tennessee roadways or bridges. However, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park announced after the earthquake that Foothills Parkway west would be closed until inspected by the Federal Highway Administration. On Sunday, they announced that no damage was found, and it had reopened.