Tuesday morning, folks in the Lowcountry woke up to a rumble strong enough to crack walls, knock a baby out of a high chair and a pregnant mother off her feet.
"Some people have reported hearing a large boom," says Derrec Becker with the South Carolina Emergency Management Division. "It sounded like a truck went by. It sounded like an explosion. Various reports like that."
Becker says it's fortunate the quake only caused minor injuries and damage. Emergency management officials pinpoint the epicenter of the quake four miles to the southwest of Summerville.
He tells WACH FOX News this is just another reminder South Carolina needs to be ready for the big one.
"They've happened before. Major ones have happened before. And it's only a matter of time before one happens again," says Becker.
The largest quake to ever hit the eastern seaboard leveled Charleston in 1886.
Tuesday's much smaller shake up registered a 3.6 magnitude. Experts say while significant, it's far less potent than Charlestons's historic 7.3 magnitude quake.
"While people like the county emergency management and myself are ready for it," says Seismologist Steve Jaume, "By and large, most of the public isn't."
In November, WACH FOX News spoke with Jaume. He warned Palmetto State residents to be on guard while Charleston is more prone to quakes, the entire state is vulnerable.
"We don't know when it's going to happen," says Jaume. "We don't really know where either. The next big quake may not be here or in Charleston. It may be somewhere in the Upstate."
And on this December morning, South Carolina residents got a rare taste of what mother nature is capable of.
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