An overnight earthquake woke people up in Central Washington and provided a first test of a new early warning system.
It struck Kittitas County around 1 a.m.
"It almost shook me out of bed," said Barbara King, who ran to check on her horses.
"The light fixture over the dining room was swinging. Yeah, it was scary. I still have anxiety, I can't get back to sleep," King said early Wednesday morning.
The 4.3-magnitude quake twisted pictures on walls but caused no damage.
Twenty Seattle-area businesses and government agencies just started receiving alerts as part of a test project.
They got 10 seconds warning, but the quake wasn't big enough that anyone needed it.
It struck in an area of lower seismic risk, with a few older sensors that can only measure the magnitude of smaller quakes and don't provide data as quickly as scientists would like.
"There weren't enough and they weren't good enough," said state seismologist John Vidale. "Part of our long-term plans is to upgrade the network so we have the right kind of instruments."
Scientists are trying to secure more funding for the early warning system, so they can make it accurate enough to someday issue public warnings.
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