Unexplained “Booms” That Rattle Homes
By James Donahue
I have lived in several places throughout the United States over the years and I don’t think I have ever experienced a location where we haven’t been shocked by a deep, rumbling clap of thunderous discharge that literally shakes the foundations of the house, rattles the windows and makes everyone sit up and ask “what was that?”
At least three places I lived were located near U.S. Air Force bases and we have been used to the sounds of heavy jet aircraft cracking the sound barrier overhead. And we have lived in the Midwest where violent thunderstorms visit mostly in the spring. I have worked at construction sites where dynamite has been used. The explosive noise I am writing of doesn’t exactly sound like any of the above; expect perhaps a nearby clasp of thunder following a nearby lightning strike.
But there has never been a lightning strike linked to the booms I am referring to. Nor have these explosive sounds been followed up by more noises like them.
There have been times . . . usually in the quiet of the evening . . . when a booming sound and the rumbling afterward has sent me running into the yard, thinking that perhaps a nearby building has exploded. I have looked for flames, sniffed the air for the smell of explosives and smoke, and talked to neighbors who, like me, have peered outside to investigate the source of such a discharge. We have exchanged expressions of dismay, listened for the sounds of sirens that might help us explain away the mystery. But all remains quiet.
I presently live in Central California, along the Pacific coast, and not far from at least two major airports. The sounds of heavy military aircraft and commercial planes passing overhead are familiar ones. And so are the mystery booms. They seem to occur more frequently here than they did in either Michigan or Arizona, where I lived at earlier times. But I have heard these unexplained mysterious explosive sounds everywhere . . . even in the vast open high desert lands of Northeast Arizona.
They are the type of event that happens so infrequently we tend to forget about them within a day or two, and rarely talk about them. They just perplex us when they happen. And for someone like me, who has an old news reporter’s nose for getting to the bottom of things, that is saying a lot.
In my constant exploration of the Internet, however, I chanced to run into a report by investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe that actually documented cases of unexplained booms and in many cases, flashes of a strange blue light, reported all over the United States and England.
Howe, who maintains a website called Earthfiles and is a regular guest on the all-night Coast-to-Coast radio show, is well known as a researcher of paranormal things like UFO sightings, cattle mutilations and conspiracy theories. She usually has some kind of theory to offer during her interviews. In this report, Ms. Howe admitted to be as perplexed as the rest of us as to their origins.
She reported letters and e-mails from people all over the United States. One said the boom was preceded by a strange “whirring” noise. Another person said a series of these unexplained explosions were rattling her neighborhood every evening at just about dusk. She turned on a tape recorder one night and captured the sound, which she sent to Howe. Not that the recording gave any help to solving this peculiar riddle.
Police agencies say they are usually flooded with telephone calls after neighborhoods and entire communities are shaken by these loud reports. They say they have no answer either.
Among the best attempts to explain the sounds were that (1.) they are the result of secret military experiments going on in space, (2.) it is the sound of the Earth plates shifting and the earth’s surface dropping as humans pump the underground aquifers dry, or (3.) it is an event occurring outside of our limited awareness because we are all living in a created matrix.
No matter which scenario we might choose, none of them sound very assuring.
By James Donahue
I have lived in several places throughout the United States over the years and I don’t think I have ever experienced a location where we haven’t been shocked by a deep, rumbling clap of thunderous discharge that literally shakes the foundations of the house, rattles the windows and makes everyone sit up and ask “what was that?”
At least three places I lived were located near U.S. Air Force bases and we have been used to the sounds of heavy jet aircraft cracking the sound barrier overhead. And we have lived in the Midwest where violent thunderstorms visit mostly in the spring. I have worked at construction sites where dynamite has been used. The explosive noise I am writing of doesn’t exactly sound like any of the above; expect perhaps a nearby clasp of thunder following a nearby lightning strike.
But there has never been a lightning strike linked to the booms I am referring to. Nor have these explosive sounds been followed up by more noises like them.
There have been times . . . usually in the quiet of the evening . . . when a booming sound and the rumbling afterward has sent me running into the yard, thinking that perhaps a nearby building has exploded. I have looked for flames, sniffed the air for the smell of explosives and smoke, and talked to neighbors who, like me, have peered outside to investigate the source of such a discharge. We have exchanged expressions of dismay, listened for the sounds of sirens that might help us explain away the mystery. But all remains quiet.
I presently live in Central California, along the Pacific coast, and not far from at least two major airports. The sounds of heavy military aircraft and commercial planes passing overhead are familiar ones. And so are the mystery booms. They seem to occur more frequently here than they did in either Michigan or Arizona, where I lived at earlier times. But I have heard these unexplained mysterious explosive sounds everywhere . . . even in the vast open high desert lands of Northeast Arizona.
They are the type of event that happens so infrequently we tend to forget about them within a day or two, and rarely talk about them. They just perplex us when they happen. And for someone like me, who has an old news reporter’s nose for getting to the bottom of things, that is saying a lot.
In my constant exploration of the Internet, however, I chanced to run into a report by investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe that actually documented cases of unexplained booms and in many cases, flashes of a strange blue light, reported all over the United States and England.
Howe, who maintains a website called Earthfiles and is a regular guest on the all-night Coast-to-Coast radio show, is well known as a researcher of paranormal things like UFO sightings, cattle mutilations and conspiracy theories. She usually has some kind of theory to offer during her interviews. In this report, Ms. Howe admitted to be as perplexed as the rest of us as to their origins.
She reported letters and e-mails from people all over the United States. One said the boom was preceded by a strange “whirring” noise. Another person said a series of these unexplained explosions were rattling her neighborhood every evening at just about dusk. She turned on a tape recorder one night and captured the sound, which she sent to Howe. Not that the recording gave any help to solving this peculiar riddle.
Police agencies say they are usually flooded with telephone calls after neighborhoods and entire communities are shaken by these loud reports. They say they have no answer either.
Among the best attempts to explain the sounds were that (1.) they are the result of secret military experiments going on in space, (2.) it is the sound of the Earth plates shifting and the earth’s surface dropping as humans pump the underground aquifers dry, or (3.) it is an event occurring outside of our limited awareness because we are all living in a created matrix.
No matter which scenario we might choose, none of them sound very assuring.