Earthquake shakes Happy's Inn area

Four earthquakes hit Lincoln County in the last 24 hours.

A 3.5-magnitude earthquake occurred 27 miles southeast of Libby, near Happy's Inn, at 7:09 p.m. Tuesday. Three more earthquakes, all measured at 2.3-magnitude, shook the same location Wednesday morning, according to Lincoln County Emergency Management Agency Deputy Lisa Oedewaldt.

Oedewaldt was unsure whether the quakes on Wednesday, which occurred between 7:05 a.m. and 8:47 a.m., were separate events or aftershocks from Tuesday's 3.5-magnitude quake.

Oedewaldt said the Lincoln County Sheriff's Office will patrol the area and no calls were made to dispatch reporting the events. She stressed no evacuation order has been made and the Flower Creek Dam is unharmed.

That now makes five quakes to shake the Happy's Inn area in less than two weeks. On May 3, a 2.5-magnitude earthquake shook the same area.

More information will be available in the May 16 edition of The Western News.