A minor earthquake rattled parts of Pennsylvania, causing Alligators In The Sewer to go offline for several hours last night. The quake triggered the crash of several of the web servers at 1&1 Internet, AITS’ hosting service. Technicians at the Chesterbrook, PA company scrambled heroically into the night in an effort to revive the errant servers.

People in eastern Pennsylvania were particularly unnerved by the rare seismic rumbles, especially in the wake of the recent catastrophic earthquakes in Haiti. The tremor, which measured 2.6 on the Richter scale, rattled dishes on the shelves of several suburban Philadelphia residences, and prompted a number of neighborhood dogs to bark incessantly. Police and other first responders in the area also reported incidents of snow knocked off the rooftops of some houses. No injuries were reported with no interruptions of power, gas or cable TV in the area.

While the region is not normally prone to seismic activity, Norm at Alligators In The Sewer offered some sage advice to the Pennsylvania-based web host company: “Maybe consider putting some rubber shock-absorbing pads under your server racks, so things don’t get so shaken up next time, dude!”