Five minutes ago my entire house just shook.

I could feel the tremor coming for a few seconds, then it hit. Working at the kitchen table I heard the dishes rattle, and then the entire house. Considering my ‘gaff’ was built in 1850, I think I’m probably safe.

So, after checking with the g/f (another night owl) via text – I went straight to the BBC News web site to find out what’s going on.

Nothing.

So I fired up MSN Messenger – friends across the UK were connected. And all we did was exchange geographical details – Harrogate, York, Nottingham, Bradford and Leeds were all quickly added to the “disaster zone”.

As I’m writing this I can hear a mixture of strong winds, burglar alarms (in case people were trying to pick up the house perhaps?) and chatter from the neighbours congregating (and checking out the scaffolding on the house opposite!) – and my instant messenger client is lighting-up like a Christmas tree.

And the BBC web site? A note on the ticker – “Reports of tremor felt in West Midlands. More details soon.”

No need to bother, I’ve found out all I need use my own network of citizen journalists.

Right, where did I put the whiskey?

Update: It’s five minutes since I wrote this. Four or five friends have connected to Facebook and updated their status message to something Earthquake-related. BBC News 24 has hardly mentioned it yet. I’m having online conversations with people across the country, exchanging stories and locations.

Update 2: The BBC’s caught up now. Epicentre was Hull, 4.6 on the Richter scale. Crikey.

Update 3: 4.7 according to the US Geological Survey.