Waupun man dealing with aftermath of frost/ice quake

WAUPUN (WITI) -- The extreme cold we saw last week and thaw we've seen this week has caused its share of problems in southeastern Wisconsin -- but in Waupun -- they're really feeling the weather changes quite literally!

Last Tuesday night, many in Waupun felt something, after hearing something that was very loud and unexpected.

"I didn't know if it was my house. I didn't know if it was outside," Jackie Blankenberg said.

"Something different, strange to me. We heard a BOOM -- pretty loud," Dennis Olsen said.

"I heard what sounded like two huge gunshots and I actually sat up straight," Blankenberg said.

"It was pretty loud up there. It seemed like it shook the house somewhat. It was loud!" Olsen said.

Olsen checked around but found nothing -- thinking it maybe was from the nearby gravel pit -- but his grandson did find something: a crack in the middle of the driveway that hadn't been there before.

"We measured it, it went down 8 inches. The first crack was crossways in the driveway, east and west. The more that we looked here it find it goes north and south. Well, I measured it out and it goes 154 feet," Olsen said.

Nearly a week later, the crack has pockets 9.5 inches deep.

"Not like a sinkhole. I figured it was a frost break," Olsen said.

Frost or ice quakes, as they're known, most likely created the booms and left the crack in the driveway as the earth quickly expanded and contracted with the change in temperatures.

"It's very strange. It's a sound you don't expect. In my 47 years I never heard of a frost quake before," Blankenberg said.

Olsen had a Fond du Lac Sheriff's deputy come out and take a look at the crack, and that deputy felt like there was no danger to anyone.

Some in Waupun said they thought people were breaking into their homes with the sudden loud booms.