ANDERSON, Ind. — When the earth began to shake Thursday morning, Steve Kellams, 46, was at work in Summitville, convinced that he’d just experienced an accident of some kind.

“I thought it was something hitting the building. It was such a hard thud,” Kellams said. “That’s what everybody thought.”

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security confirmed Thursday that a magnitude 3.8 earthquake occurred at 7:55 a.m. and was centered five miles southeast of Greentown in Howard County.

After the tremor, Kellams walked outside and looked around, finding that many other residents and business owners had gone outside to see what had caused the commotion. “It wasn’t a shake. It was just a thud.”

In Frankton, John Couch was at home, convinced that he’d experienced a brush with an airplane. “It felt like a sonic boom and then the ground rumbled and the trailer and everything shook.”

Couch said he hasn’t witnessed any damage to the Maple Hills Trailer Park in Frankton where he lives, but said the earthquake significant. “I’ve felt some of those little bitty ones we’ve had before but this was a big one. This was bigger than some of the ones we’ve had come through here before. It was weird.”

Anderson Police Sgt. Bill Casey said he thought the tremor was a truck rumbling by his home. “I just felt like the whole house was moving.”

Madison County Sheriff Ron Richardson was doing work on his home computer in Alexandria when the quake struck.

At first, Richardson believed that his furnace had exploded. “I heard this big rumble and the house shook. I went to check the furnace and I started looking around at my neighbor’s houses.”

Richardson said Madison County dispatchers received 37 calls immediately after the quake as area residents wondered what had just happened.

No damage was reported to the sheriff’s office, he said.

“The Indiana Department of Homeland Security advises Hoosiers check their homes for any visible damage. Look for any new or widened cracks in floors, masonry or walls. Make sure utility lines and boxes have not been damaged,” IDHS said in a statement.

“It’s important that you report any damage to the proper authorities. If you notice any damage to your utility lines, especially gas lines, call your local utility company immediately and report the damage,” said Indiana State Fire Marshal Jim Greeson.

In Peru, Air Force Sgt. Gregory Scott Coryell was close to the epicenter of the quake. “We all felt the quake this morning here at Grissom AFB (Air Force Base).  I was standing in my office, and it felt like an explosion.  Everything I my desk shook real bad, causing pictures to fall,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Herald Bulletin.

“My bobblehead figurines were going crazy,” Coryell said.

“It only lasted maybe five seconds and that was it. I thought someone wrecked into our building,” Coryell said.

State officials are checking to make sure the quake didn’t do any damage to infrastructure.

The Indiana Department of Transportation said inspectors were dispatched Thursday to check out area bridges close to the epicenter of the quake.

“Shortly after the earthquake, personnel from the Tipton subdistrict were dispatched to bridge sites along State Road 213 between Greentown and Windfall, and to a truss structure nearby on S.R. 26.  If problems are noted, remedial action will be taken,” INDOT reported in a written statement.

Bridge inspectors from the Greenfield, Crawfordsville and Fort Wayne districts began close examination of structures within a 10-mile radius of the quake’s center.

Contact Brandi Watters 640-4847, brandi.watters@heraldbulletin.com