Boom

UPDATE: Another one happened this morning. Did I mention this is right near the Hellmouth? Maybe it’s The First.

I wonder it this was? I like a mystery as much as the next person, but this is a little freaky – and it’s only about ten miles from my house:

Whoa! Whoa! – what the hell was that?

Hundreds of wide-eyed Northeast Philadelphia residents asked each other that question last night after being driven from their homes by an unknown, unseen force that briefly shook the ground beneath their feet.

Cops, firefighters, medics and other emergency responders swarmed Knights and Fairdale roads, just east of Northeast Philadelphia Airport, after numerous people reported feeling their houses shake from what seemed to be some sort of explosion shortly before 10 p.m. Residents in lower Bucks County reported the same thing.

The emergency crews found no fires, no explosions, no signs of damaged homes or injured residents.

The U.S. Geological Survey reportedly said that there was no evidence that an earthquake – or even a small tremor – had occurred.

Peco Energy spokesman Ben Armstrong said the company had no reports of power outages.

“We had a crew respond and inspect our equipment in the area,” he said. “At this point, we don’t believe it’s anything Peco-related. We don’t know what’s going on.”

Similarly, a police official said the Water Department had received no reports of lost water pressure that would have indicated that a pipe had burst. Police helicopters hovering over the area saw no evidence that anything ominous had occurred.

In short, officials had no explanation for the mighty boom that residents felt.

The Fire Department officially declared the situation under control about 10:45 p.m. – but the unresolved mystery left some folks feeling unsettled.