© Sammy Jo Hester | MLive.com Juan Lara, 67, of Flint has experienced the explosion-type noises bellowing through his house. "For a minute I thought we were being attacked," Lara said of the sounds.
It comes unannounced. It shakes the walls and the floors and freaks out the pets.
People who have experienced it all describe it the same way.
"Explosions," said Juan Lara, a 67-year-old man who lives near Center Road and Davison Road.
Lara and others said it's been happening off and on for about a year. It usually happens in the afternoon, maybe once every few weeks. But, lately, it's more frequent.
"(It's) loud," Lara added. "I don't know where they're coming from."
Nobody does.
Not the neighbors, not the fire department, not the power company.
"I haven't heard anything like that," said John Babb, Flint Fire Department battalion fire chief.
Fire crews haven't responded to anything that matches what residents are describing, Babb said. And if anything was blowing up, firefighters would be out there.
He wondered if it was maybe a power transformer or some activity under a manhole.
If either were the case, Consumers Energy would know, Babb said.
They didn't.
"We're not aware anything on our system," said Dan Bishop, a Consumers spokesman.
Whatever it is, Sheila Kopek knows she's not imagining it.
"It shakes you, you feel it," said Kopek, 34.
She's been hearing it "at least one every couple weeks" since the summertime. She and her husband thought they were fireworks at first.
It shakes the walls in their home. It comes up from the earth like a crack of thunder, except at a lower pitch, she said.
"It's loud enough that it will make you jump," Kopek said. "It's weird."
© Sammy Jo Hester | MLive.comSheila Kopek, 34, has experienced the explosion-type noise that she says shake her home in Flint.
But it doesn't shake, Rozycki said, From his home, it's more like "something in the distance."
"It reminds me somewhat of like when there's a fireworks show downtown," Rozycki said.
But not everybody hears it.
"No, I haven't," said Jim Joyce, 70. "Course, I'm hard of hearing anyway."
At nearby Starlite Coney Island, manager Jason Hester said he's never heard the noise, nor has he heard people talking about it.
Could be a power transformer blowing, he said.
"That's like an explosion," Hester said.
Another resident wasn't familiar with the sounds.
"Only thing I've heard is gunshots," said the man, who asked that his name not be used.
It's not gunshots, said the people who heard the explosions.
They know gunshots, these are different.
Megan, a 14-year-old who asked her last name not be used, said she heard the noise from her home once.
"Sort of loud, just noise, I guess."
Lara said the noises have been happening for "a good year or more."
He remembers the first time it happened, the shaking and rumbling.
"For a minute there, I thought we were being attacked."
He's thankful it wasn't an attack. But, at this point, he just wants to know what it is.
Nobody seems to know.
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